Stampin" Up! Offers "No Strings" Membership

On July 1st in conjunction with the launch of the new 2011-12 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog, Stampin' Up! announced a $99 Starter Kit Promotion. What a great time to join Stampin' Up! and save a minimum of 20% on everything in the catalog, just when your Wish List has doubled! I wanted to take a few minutes to share some information with you as a hobbyist, that might explain the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator program and encourage you to take advantage of this promotion which will end on July 31st.  By signing up during this promotion, you will also earn an exclusive Christmas Keepsake Project Kit containing products valued at $40.00.   The limited-time $99 Starter Kit--valued at more than $180-is full of product favorites, including items from the brand-new Idea Book & Catalog, so you would be getting over $220.00 worth of products during this promotion!

In addition to that you would also receive:

• A 20 percent product discount!
• A free monthly issue of Stampin' Success, Stampin' Up!'s demonstrator-only magazine!
• Sneak peeks at brand-new products!
• Invitations to exclusive Stampin' Up! events!
• Regular get-togethers to stamp!
• Free access to a community of 30,000+ crafters/stampers and creative artists

Q: You have mentioned business supplies several times. I am not interested in offering workshops or selling products to others. Do I still qualify for this promotion?
A: You have no obligation to hold workshops or sell product to anyone other than yourself. And you're the easiest customer you'll ever deal with. That's called a Hobby Demonstrator. Business supplies are provided for those individuals who decide they want to offer products to their friends to make a little additional cash, or pursue a Career Demonstrator goal for the chance at all expense paid vacations, to help put their children through college, or to pay unexpected bills or wonderful extravagances like a new car. All are possible as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. The path you take is up to you.

Q: What are my contractual obligations to Stampin' Up!?
A: Technically there are none for this or any Starter Kit Offer. You pay for the Starter Kit, and you get the Starter Kit you paid for. That's it! Even the shipping is paid for by Stampin' Up! If you decide to keep your 20% discount you simply purchase $300 in merchandise each quarter. That's only $240 out of pocket because remember YOU get a 20% discount over a three month period! And another great benefit of joining now is the quarterly minimum does not go into effect until your first full quarter with Stampin Up! This means you would not have to fulfill your minimum requirement until December 31, 2011. But let's say you don't buy another thing. No problem. You just got a 40+% discount on the Starter Kit! If you decide to purchase a little more, even better, you could get a 30% discount on your first $150 order, and 20% from there on.  It's that simple.

Please feel free to contact me at either 863-438-5236 (home office) or at 407-538-2686(cell), or send me an email  at stampwithnanc@gmail.com and I'd be happy to chat with you about this amazing opportunity.

Happy Stampin'!!

A new week, and a new class to get ready for

So I survived last week's overloaded schedule, and now it's time to gear up for my Tuesday class.  I told them last week that I was going to start having them do cards using products from the Summer Mini before it expires on August 31, 2011, so I'm going to have them do the Strength & Hope card with the butterfly on the front that the Thursday night class did.  That just leaves a Christmas card.  For once, I preplanned my supplies when I had placed the last order so that we could do this card....

Tuesday Card Class Christmas Card

Isn't it darling!  Very pretty, yet so simple.  It was CASE'd from the web site Just Add Ink.  Here's a look at the inside....

Recipe:

Paper - Sahara Sand

Ink - River Rock, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip

Stamps - Medallion, Dasher, Many Merry Messages

Accessories - 5/8" Satin Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Corner Rounder Punch, Glue Dots

Wow, what a week! Part 6 - Saturday (is it over yet!?!?)

Well, Saturday is finally here, but I've got one more project that needs to get done and in the mail...my brother's birthday is next week, so I have to get his card finished (I'd actually started it earlier in the week, but I never could seem to get it done), and because it was Saturday, I had until 3:00pm to get it to the post office in time for it to go out with that day's mail.  Well, with all the other things I needed to get done on Saturday, I did it!

Front of Jake's card

Recipe:

Paper - Whisper White, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Sahara Sand

Ink - Stazon, Basic Grey, Marina Mist, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip

Stamps - King of the Grill (Retired)

Accessories - Texturez Plate (Retired), Big Shot, Oval Scallop Frame Bigz Die, Blender Pen, Dimensionals, Snail

I was in such a hurry to get it in the mail that I forgot to take a picture of the inside...I had made a really cute punch art grill in green since my brother has one of those green egg grills...hopefully he'll get the reference.  Oh well...guess it's time to get ready for a new week!

Wow, what a week! Part 5 - TGIF it's Friday!!

OK, so you'd think that after all that was going on for the week that by Friday things would have calmed down...not so much...I had a friend (and now a customer) coming over for the first time for a "play date", and my house wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be...especially for someone that was coming over for the first time!  Once again, I was up early (at least for me), 5:30 and I started cleaning up my stamp room and getting it in order.  I started there since my husband was still sleeping and I was trying hard not to wake him.  Once he was up and getting ready for work, I began working on the living room and the kitchen.  I think I got all the rooms presentable by 9:00am or so, so I hoped into the shower and got myself presentable too.  Then I was off to the grocery store to pick up some things for us to have for lunch that day.  She had about an hour drive and was due to get to my place between 10:00 am and 10:30 am.  When I rounded the corner on my street coming back from the grocery store (mind you it was now about 10:15 am), I was so relieved not to see her car in our drive way!  I rushed into the house, and started making chicken salad for our lunch.  Just a couple of minutes later, the phone rang and it turns out her GPS had sent her down the wrong way (don't you just love those know-it-all GPS's!?!).  I talked her through it and once she got there, she told me that she would love to make an extra special wedding card for a dear friend of hers that was getting married soon.  We looked through several of my cards, and then on-line and finally decided on a card that she thought was suitable.  We spent the rest of the day working on it...after all this, would you like to see the card???  Well, here it is...

Front of Wedding Card

We ended up using retired colors because they closer matched the wedding colors.  It was a fun card to make, but it definitely took us some time to make it...it was wonderful just spending the day with her.  If you'd like to see the inside of the card, I've added it here...

Inside of Wedding Card

Believe it or not, my week still wasn't over...stay tuned for more in my next post...

Wow, what a week...part 4 continued - Thursday

OK, so where were we...ah yes.....
I had to leave our mini convention to come home and finish designing a third card for my Thursday night class and to cut all the card stock that we would need.  It was an easy out, but I chose to use my convention card as one of my three cards (see previous post) for that night.
The second card I chose was a card we had done at a down line meeting back in April.  It was a card that Susan (my up line) had chosen for us to do as a farewell to the Nature Walk stamp set (not knowing for sure if they were going to bring it back in the new catalog or not...but they did, yeah!!).  It is a Z-card layout...

Second card for Thursday night stamp class

I hope it's not too hard to see, but the card stock colors are Rich Razzelberry, Old Olive and of course, Whisper White.  Rich Razzelberry was used to stamp the butterfly...first on the front "Z" flap and then on the inner whisper white panel.  The Rich Razzelberry and Old Olive pens were used to color in the branch image which was stamped and "stamped off" of the two panels.  The sentiments used were from Bring on the Cake and Happiest Birthday Wishes.  A little bit of Pear Pizzazz seam binding to finish it off and they were good to go!

The third card...that was the toughest...I'd just received the ribbon lace border punch, and I really wanted to use it!  After searching several websites and blogs, I found one on Stamp with Amy's blog that I thought I might be able to work with (here's her card)...hers didn't use the border punch, it used ribbon, but pretty much everything else was the same, so yes, I CASE'd it (when you're pressed for time...sometimes, you've just got to go with it).  Here is the front of the card...

Thursday night stamp class - card#3 front panel

And here is what I came up with for the inside...

Thursday night stamp class - card#3 inner panel

It really turned out to be a beautiful card using Pretty in Pink and Whisper White.  Ink colors used were Pretty in Pink and Rose Red.  The stamp sets used were Curly Cute, Word Play, and Strength & Hope.  That last set is from the Summer mini, and for each set purchased, Stampin' Up! is donating $2.00 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund...it doesn't matter if you purchase the wood mount, the clear mount or the digital version...their donation is the same.  Anyway, back to the card...accessories used to make this card are, Big Shot, Polka Dot Embossing Folder, Sponge Dauber, Basic Pearls, Pretty in Pink Brads, Glue Dots, Two-Way Glue, 1/16" Circle Punch, Flower Punch from Punch Trio, Ticket Corner Punch, and the Lace Ribbon Border Punch. 

When all was said and done, my students in the Thursday night class loved all of their cards, so it was all worth it!

What a week....part 4 - Thursday

THURSDAY

Thursday I was up and at it first thing.  My upline, Susan Yeager, hosted a mini convention for those of us in her downline that weren't able to make it to convention this year.  There were four of us in all that were able to be there.  We had a great time.  One of our activities was a shoebox swap where we were encouraged to bring a project for each of us to make that would include any of the new catalog items.  So far I haven't purchased too much from the new catalog other than the new in color kit as well as a stamp set or two....so this is what I came up with...

Mini Convention Shoebox Swap

Well, what do you think?  Not bad for a quickie card, huh?

Recipe:

Paper - Card stock from each of the new in colors: Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo (love this color!), Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White

Ink - VersaMark, Island Indigo

Stamps - Printed Petals, Perfectly Penned

Accessories - Lucky Limeade 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon, Full Heart Punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Snail

Here are some of the other cards we did that day for the shoebox swap...

Judy Bartlett's shoebox swap

For Judy's card. we were able to use the new lace ribbon border punch and the triple treat flower stamp.  Pretty cool using it in layers, huh?  She also used the same greeting set that I used, Perfectly Penned...love that font!

Judy Bartlett's Bookmark

And, she made each of us a bookmark using the hostess set Posy Punch.  She's our resident My Digital Studio expert, so I think the greeting was printed using that.

Next we did two cards brought by Susan Hornsby  First we did a punch card...

Susan Hornsby shoebox swap #1

See the new pendant punch?  Very cute!!  Then we used the new hostess set Faith in Nature...

Susan Hornsby shoebox swap #2

This was such a quick simple card to make using our stampin' pastels...I love the color combination!

Once we were finished with Susan's cards, they all did my card (see above)...I hope they liked it!  When they were done with my card, we broke for a delicious lunch that we'd all brought a dish for.

After we broke from our yummy lunch, we made our last card for the day which Susan Yeager presented.

Susan Yeager shoebox swap

I don't think you can see it very well, but on this card, we used the shimmer paint by applying it with saran wrap...it is so much prettier than in the picture.  I actually didn't get to quite finish this card because I had to get home and prepare for the second half of my day...I had a class to teach that night...more on that in my next post.

Wow, what a week....Part 3 - Wednesday

Wednesday

Wednesday morning, I got up and put the finishing touches on a card I was working on for my niece.  It used a stamp set that was retired, but when you're doing cards for family members, it's good to break out some oldie, but goodie sets...

Natalie's Birthday Card

I know the set isn't that old (it's from this past sale-a-bration), but I think it's going to be one that I get quite a bit of use out of.

Recipe:

Paper - Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizazz, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Ink - Melon Mambo, Pear Pizazz, Pumpkin Pie

Stamps - Punch Bunch (Retired), Create A Cupcake, Bring On the Cake

Accessories - Big Shot, Polka Dot EF, Pear Pizazz Seam Binding, Basic Rhinestones, Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Scallop Square Punch, Scallop Border Punch, Cupcake Builder Punch, 1 3/4" Circle Punch

I was glad that I'd gotten up early because I had a bid day on Thursday, and I had so much to do to get ready for it.  Well, my head had other plans...I soon had a full blown migraine, and I wasn't getting anything done.  It wasn't until later that evening that I was able to get anything done.  I was once again up until almost three am trying to prepare for the next day. 

I hope you'll tune into my next post to see what the fuss was all about....

Wow, what a week....Part 2 - Tuesday

TUESDAY

On Tuesday morning, I had to head out for my Tuesday class in Lake Alfred. We used to do three cards each week, but my ladies kept saying that they loved their cards so much; they didn't want to give them away. After discussing it, it was decided that they would start making only two new cards each week, but they would be making two of each of them (for a total of four). They also decided that they wanted to get a head start on their Christmas cards this year, so each week; one of the cards is a Christmas card. Last week, they told me that a few of them were in need of anniversary cards, so if I could come up with something, they would appreciate it. When I was trying to figure out what cards they were going to make this week, at first I thought they'd do this design for their anniversary card...

Anniversary card 1st Attempt

I cased this from a card I'd seen on Lee Ann Greff's web site several months ago, but it just wasn't doing it for me. Then I decided on this design...

Anniversary Card 2nd Attempt

Just by changing it a little and adding a black backing, I couldn't believe what a difference it made. Here is the inside of the card...

Anniversary Card Inside

I decided to pre-make the flower centers since crystal effects takes a while to set up, but I did demonstrate how they were made.

Recipe:

Paper - Basic Black, Whisper White, Marina Mist

Ink - Basic Black, Marina Mist

Stamps - Vintage Vogue, A Word for You, Something to Celebrate, Well Scripted (Retired), Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel

Accessories - 5/8" Black Satin Ribbon, Clear Blocks, Crystal Effects, Glass Beads (Retired), Big Shot, Final Press EF, Scallop Border Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Small Circle Punch from Punch Trio, Glue Dots, Dimesionals, Snail

For the Christmas card, I guess since the card I'd made for my SIL (from Monday) used retired colors, I guess I was still in the mood to use them so we ended up doing this card...

Tuesday Class Christmas Card

When I first started getting into Stampin' Up!, I think I saw this card on Splitcoast Stampers (sorry, I don't know who to give credit to...if you know, please let me know and I'll be happy to acknowledge their talents), and I've saved it all this time as a card I really liked. The colors aren't your traditional colors for the holidays, but I thought it was very pretty. Here's a look at what we did with the inside of the card...

Tuesday Card Class Inside of Christmas Card

Recipe:
Paper - Rich Razzelberry, Old Olive, Whisper White, Cottage Wall DSP (Retired)
Ink - Old Olive, Rich Razzelberry, Orchid Opulence (Retired), Versa Mark
Stamps - Tree Trimmings, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Many Merry Messages
Accessories - Big Shot, Petals A Plenty EF, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Iridescent Ice (Retired), Scallop Oval Punch, Medium Oval Punch, Heat Gun

When I got home that afternoon, I started on a card for my niece...I'll show you that card in my next post....Wednesday.....

Wow, what a week! Part 1 - Monday

This past week was a blur.  Every day was loaded with things to do and accomplish, and I couldn't wait for Saturday to get here.  It probably won't seem like a lot, but check out what I had to do this past week:

MONDAY

On Monday, I had to get a birthday card made and into the mail for my SIL (sister-in-law).  I was racking my brain for a card that she might like, and this is what I finally came up with...

Debbie's Birthday Card

She loves purple, so I broke into my retired stash and used the Bliss stamp set from this past Sale-a-bration as well as the retired ink color Orchid Opulence.  I hope she likes it.

Then I had to figure out what cards my Tuesday class would be making as well as prepare all the supplies for it.  So guess who was up until 2:30 am...?!?!

Recipe:

Paper - Orchid Opulence, Whisper White

Ink - Orchid Opulence

Stamps - Bliss

Accessories - Big Shot, Wallpaper EF, Embossing Powder, Basic Rhinestones, Stamping Sponge, 1'4" Orchid Opulence Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals

Look for the next post for what I needed to accomplish on Tuesday....

Retired Stamps For Sale

Since I'm not working full time these days, I've gone through my retired stash and I have found some stamp sets that I am willing to part with.  I have listed them on the stamps for sale page.  Maybe you could give them a new home...check it out and let me know if you're interested in any of them.

Thank You Mister Brown (and Stampin' Up! too)!!

Lookie, lookie, lookie what Mr. Brown (the UPS guy) just delivered...

New 2011 - 2013 In Colors

These new In Colors are gorgeous!!!  I took advantage of a demonstrator only pre-sale offering, and I just got them today. From left to right, they are named: Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade & Pool Party.  They will be available through Stampin' Up! from now until June 30th, 2013.  I can't wait to start using them in some  new projects.  I'll be sure to post what I come up with so you all can see how they turn out.

Happy Stampin',

Nanc





Here we go....

Well, I've been wanting to take this leap for a while now, so today I'm jumping in with both feet...my own blog...can you believe it?!?  I've decided that if I'm going to pursue my love of making cards and related items seriously, this is an avenue I have at my disposal to express myself as I learn and grow.  I hope you'll join me on my journey into the adventures of card making...here we go...

I've started teaching classes which I thoroughly enjoy!  Here is one of the cards we've recently made in class.

Isn't it beautiful?!?  I know it's only July and this is a Christmas card, but the participants in this class wanted to get a head start on their Christmas cards for this year, so one of the cards we do each week is a Christmas card.

Card Details

Paper - Whisper White & Cherry Cobbler

Stamps - Christmas Greetings

Ink - Cherry Cobbler

Accessories - Big Shot, Northern Flurry Embossing Folder, Basic Rhinestones & Snail Adhesive

All products used are Stampin' Up!

I'd love to hear your comments, so drop me a line and let me know what you think, okay?