Clarifying our Crafters Club Calendar

Sep 7, 2010

Uh oh!  Was just reminded this morning that this is one of those messy "confusion" months again!  Meaning that my online calendar, which is set to "auto repeat" each month gets all confused when the month begins on a Wednesday.  And then it "lies" to you!

So here's the REAL scoop about when my Clubs will meet this month…… just to clarify:

My Langley Crafters Club meets on the "2nd Tuesday" of the month (at 7:00 pm).  And my Oak Harbor Club meets on "the day AFTER the 2nd Tuesday" (at 6:30 pm). 

Because there's not an option to program the auto repeat feature to precisely that schedule on my online calendar, I have set it for the next-best thing…… which unfortunately means the Oak Harbor meeting date will show incorrectly during months that begin on Wednesday – as THIS month did.  So sorry 'bout that!

And watch out in the upcoming months, too –  'cuz it's gonna be wrong again in December of this year – and again next June (6/2011).  Both months start on Wednesdays again. 

But come to think of it, how can that BE?!?  There are only 10 months from September to June…… and 7 different days of the week a month could start on.  How in the world did we end up with 3 of the 10 months all starting on Wednesday, of all days?!?  Geesh!

Anyway, my apologies if that little scheduling snafu has confused you, but now please go make sure your OWN calendars have it right – and many thanks to the sharp-eyed stamper who caught that and brought it to my attention this morning! 

Watermelon card – Island County Fair

Sep 6, 2010

  P8190006 Well, some people have asked how I made that watermelon card we had on display in our Island County Fair booth. 

So even though it's long past watermelon eating weather around here (yeah, like we ever HAD watermelon weather this year, lol), I'm gonna try to explain.  Wish I could demo with a video, but I'm still not set up for that around here.Watermelon

It's all about sponging.  Specifically, "burnishing" color with a sponge.  There's actually no stamping involved at all.

I started by tracing an everyday dessert plate onto Whisper White cardstock.  That gave me a circle about 5-1/2" across, so it fits fine in an envelope.  I cut out the circle with the Craft & Paper Scissors….. then folded in half along the grain of the paper.  (Translation:  in the direction it folded easily.)  That gave me the basic card shape.

Then I started sponging/burnishing with Regal Rose Classic ink.  Taking the ink up on a quarter of a sponge, I began by wiping a couple strokes of excess ink off onto my scrap paper.  Then with the ink that remained on the sponge, I started sponging in tight continuous circles, at first starting off my cardstock and then moving up onto it over the fold.  I started with light pressure, and as color was applied, gradually increased the pressure.  Every time I needed to reload the sponge with ink I began back at the point of wiping the excess off on the scratch paper and then began the circular burnishing on my scratch paper and then working up onto the card again.  Same process – over and over – working in tight circles to within about 3/4" of the open edge of the card as shown by the pink area.

When that area was totally covered with Regal Rose ink, I switched to Melon Mambo and repeated the entire process – right on top of the same pink area.

Finally, on top of that, I applied Rose Red – with the exact same burnishing technique.

Then it was time to work on the rind.  I used the same burnishing technique, except instead of approaching from the folded edge, I worked up onto the open edge of the card.  The initial layer is Certainly Celery – and applied lightly right up to the very edge of the pinks.

Then came Wild Wasabi – applied up to about half-way between the edge of the card and the pink area.

Finally, I used Garden Green – just barely up onto the very edge of the card…. and then finished off with some deliberate strokes of that same sponge right along the edge to darken it.

Gradually building up these layers of color gives the whole thing a more "alive" look – with depth to its color, closer to real-life.

For the seeds, I just cut a template in a Window Sheet using a Hobby Blade – freehand.  It took several attempts to get the size and shapes I wanted, but the "loser" holes I just covered with Scotch tape.  I eventually had 3 sizes that worked – and applied a deep saturation of Early Espresso ink with a Sponge Dauber – in a few random directions and sizes.

I've never actually sent this card to anyone, but I could easily see it used as an invitation to a BBQ or summer picnic. 

Hmmm….. "summer" picnic……. wonder what THAT might be like?  Maybe next year…… 😉

Dark and Dreary

Sep 1, 2010

P8260004 Well, I suppose this title COULD refer to the weather outside these days, but instead it refers to the name of this hauntingly charming stamp set from the brand-new Holiday Mini Catalog!  Could hardly WAIT until September got here to share it!

My Clubs will be making this card this month, and I'll also be demonstrating it in my September workshops.  (Hint, hint….. might be a good idea to get your fall workshop on the books if it's not already; ready or not, the "holiday" season is upon us!)

This card features several fun brand-new products from the new mini:  the Dark & Dreary stamp set, of course…. along with the Spider Web Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Black Flourish Designer Jewels, and Raven 1/2" Lace Trim.  And some fun color applications….. which, as you may know, are some of my favorite techniques!

So Happy Halloween!  It's just next month, ya know!

New digital downloads available today

Aug 31, 2010

Have you been checking in at my online store regularly as new digital downloads have become available?  There have been multiple sets of new images becoming available nearly every week in recent months….. and I just noticed that the past two groups of downloads now show their release dates with their product descriptions to make it easier to remember whether or not you've seen them before.

Today 4 brand-new sets of embellishments were released:  taffeta ribbons & bows, crochet trims, vintage trinkets & antique brads.  To view them, there's a brand-new option at my online store.  Go to http://StamptheRock.StampinUp.net, click on SHOP NOW and you'll see them in an interactive list over on the right of the screen. 

To see additional recent downloads, click on Digital Crafting and then choose the link for the newest downloads.

BTW, did you notice my new banner?  I designed it with My Digital Studio™ using several new images (stamp images & embellishments) that just became available in the past couple of weeks!  Have I mentioned how much I love, love, LOVE My Digital Studio?!?

Oops! Found more flowers…

Aug 27, 2010

P8190019a Oops!  Just found another picture I had of flowers Michele showed in our ICF booth.  If you'd like to learn how to do these – and the ones in yesterday's post - please be sure to let me know!  If there's enough interest, I'm sure we could work up a class.

Status update about Punch Caddies

Aug 27, 2010

Well, we have learned recently that the Punch Caddies shown on page 200 of the 2010/2011 Idea Book & Catalog have run into development problems so severe that Stampin' Up! has had to cancel that product line altogether.  So unfortunately we will not be able to offer any of the Punch Caddies shown on page 200 – and at this time Stampin' Up! is unable to commit to whether they will be able to develop any other punch storage product in its place…….. or not.  But even if they eventually do, it will not be in the foreseeable future.

We are sorry, of course, that this has occurred, but I am pleased that Stampin' Up! would rather offer a quality product than make something available that is of inferior quality.  So we hope you'll understand….. and when you figure out an alternative clever way to store your new punches, how 'bout sharing with me, so I can share it here – ok???

 

ICF Fair projects – Day 2

Aug 26, 2010

P8190005 Here are some of the flowers Michele featured in our booth at the Island County Fair.  Several people had expressed interest in learning how to make these.  If that interests YOU, please either leave a comment (click on the "comment" link at the end of this post) or email me…… and we might be able to talk Michele into putting a class together for us!

On the back side of the Fair

Aug 25, 2010

Well, we (Michele, Christie, Leslie and I) survived the Island County Fair once again!  We had lots of fun, and spoke with lots of great people.  (WELCOME to those who may be visiting here for the first time!)

Of course I have several souvenirs to remember the 2010 Fair by:  a house that looks like a hurricane hit it as I grabbed *this* table and *that* trinket, and *this* sample and *that* tool.  And piles and piles of scraps and supplies to sort through.  Most of the booth contents have made it no farther than the garage so far, so that means that for the time-being the StampMobile has been banished to the driveway….. which probably isn't that big a deal anyway since it's filthy after having sat in the dust for a week and then *really* turned into a hopeless mess with Sunday's sprinkles. 

So I've definitely got lots to do to get life back on track.

But in the meantime I've come down with a cold…….which I suppose was bound to happen after shaking dozens of hands and handling hundreds of kids' grimy passports, lol.  Last year we had the H1N1 scare going on at Fair time so I was using hand sanitizer every couple of minutes.  This year I guess I was a bit more careless- and get to pay for it afterwards.  Oops!

Anyway, in between picking through and straightening up the messes that extend in every direction, over the next several posts I'm going to share some of the projects we featured in our booth.  The Fair's theme this year was "Island County has a Fair – E-I-E-I-GO!"  So, as has been our usual practice, we built our booth's main displays around that theme.  (We've won awards a couple of times for doing that – although not as often as we *should* have, given we're generally the ONLY commercial vendor who promotes the fair's theme, lol.)  Anyway, this year we spent several months "thinking" about the theme, because it was definitely the toughest one ever…. and thanks to an idea my Dad ultimately thought of, we've spent the past couple of months hard at work preparing our displays.

So the bulk of our display depicted "things people enter into the Island County Fair" ("Island County has a P8190001 Fair"), and then our give-away pinwheels and our nametags echoed the "E-I-E-I-GO" element of the theme.  When the fair opened and we once again saw that we were the only commercial booth to decorate to the theme (that we could see, anyway), we knew we probably had the "Best Use of the Fair's theme by a Commercial Vendor" ribbon "in the bag", so to speak. 

But it's never a good idea to count one's chickens before they're hatched, and it appears ribbons were awarded based on different criteria than indicated by the score sheet they'd sent us only a couple weeks earlier. 

So we have no award ribbon to show y'all this year – and given that our theme-efforts have only been recognized 2 of the past 5 years (in spite of virtually no theme competition among our peer vendor booths), we've decided that this will probably be our final year of trying.  Promoting the Fair's theme adds a TON of work and time…… and consumes space and money that could otherwise be used to market our businesses more effectively.  So next year we may have an entirely different focus.  Stay tuned to see what's in store; we're excited about the possibilities!

So for those who weren't able to visit us, we had 6 shelves of "things people enter into the Fair":  quilts, fruit, cakes, candy, flowers, and animals.  And all of those projects were constructed of Stampin' Up! products…. as were the blue ribbons that were also part of the displays.  I'll be sharing those projects here in the coming days.

P8190004 Our top left shelf previewed an exciting product that will be available September 1 – and can be seen in the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog:  FABRIC that coordinates with our Designer Series Papers!  Christie is the quilter on this year's booth team, so she created this pinwheel-design quilt (which coordinated with our give-away pinwheels), out of one of our packages of new fabric.  (We'll be carrying "extra-wide" fat quarters; pieces measure approx. 28" x 18".)  This particular collection is called "Candy Cane Christmas".  I love it's fun stripes and polka dots in Real Red, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, and Garden Green.  And doesn't that Real Red button in the middle add just the right punch?!?

And here's some more good news!  Christie has said she's willing to teach this quilt this upcoming season – if enough people want to take the class!  So if you have an interest in taking this class, please either leave a comment here or email me directly and let me know! If we get enough interest, we'll do it!!!