Ask Me To Stamp

Pretty Flowers

2013-05-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

This weekend has been a relaxing one. Totally free of obligations and so I was able to transition my inventory of stamp sets and accessories to get ready for the new Stampin' Up! catalog that will be going L-I-V-E in a little more than one week! I am soooo excited!

I came across the Bloomin' Bouquet flower kits I bought a few weeks ago and thought maybe I should spend some time and actually put these together. All I needed was a bone folder, paper snips and a hot glue gun.

Now how cute are these!!! This is actually two kits, each kit has 13 flowers, and I got the jars at a local craft store at 50% off. Wouldn't these make fun gifts for someone who is not feeling well? They just make me smile when I look at them!

Swallowtails

2013-05-10T11:22:00.002-04:00

I had stamp club last evening, and they are such a fun group. We always do four projects, and laugh and stamp and sometimes snack too!

This project, which will also be done by my other stamp club uses the Swallowtail background size stamp from Stampin' Up!. I have seen so many cool ideas using this stamp,that I cannot put this down!

Anyway, as you can see from the photo, some of my stampers felt creative and stamped outside the box! The yellow swallowtails were the actual project I cases from a regional swap I received. The others were deviations and wow...didn't they all turn out great?

We used Basic Gray as the card base, and Very Vanilla to stamp the swallowtail on, with a strip of designer series paper from This and That collection.

Happy May Day!

2013-05-01T11:11:00.001-04:00

Finally, I am hoping that summer is on the way! Dogwood and Redbud trees are blooming and we are having some really nice warm days.

With all the specials that are going on with Stampin' Up! lately, I've had some online orders that I needed to make and send thank you's for. This particular card was inspired by a swap card that I received at the recent Riverton Utah regional. There was no name on the swap, but her card used squares instead of circles.

These are so quick and easy to make! It only used Whisper White and a bit of scrap Designer Series Paper. Each circle is popped up with a dimensional and a Rhinestone is added to the butterfly! Also, in case you were wondering....the sentiment is stamped using the new Smoky Slate ink. Such a soft color, I think it is going to be one of my "go-to" colors!

Fun Weekend Trip!

2013-04-23T10:57:00.001-04:00

Wow! What an awesome weekend!

I traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah for the first ever Home Office Regional event for Stampin' Up! Left Indianapolis on Friday evening, came home on Sunday evening, and had a blast all day Saturday!

375 demonstrators trying to wait patiently to get our very own early release copy of the new Annual Catalog and be able to SHOP for sneak peek new catalog items! Now THAT is fun!

I cannot share anything about the catalog yet...but we only have a few short weeks before it will be live, and then everything is sharable! I can hardly wait!! The new Annual Catalog will be active on Friday, May 31st, so just a little over 5 weeks. If you don't have a demonstrator, please let me know if you would like a copy of your very own. I'll be happy to send one out to you as soon as I am able.

In the meantime, I was able to get a picture with Shelli Gardner, the CEO and cofounder of Stampin' Up! She is truly a class act, just like the company she helped create. I ♥ SU!

Spring Classes

2013-04-11T09:37:00.002-04:00

Yes, I do think Spring has arrived! My pussy willow bush is blooming, and the grass is green! I am so ready for sunshine and warm weather!

My April Kard Klass was a great success. Below is the group of cards everyone made. They were fairly quick and simple, but they all got rave reviews. Thanks to my fellow demos for their inspiration!

The new Annual Catalog will be coming soon! Be sure to let me know if you would like a copy of your very own. I'll be happy to add you to my mailing list!

News from Stampin' Up!

2013-04-05T06:57:00.001-04:00

Most recent announcement from Stampin' Up! reveals the 2013 Color Refresh coming in the 2013-2014 Annual Catalog June 1st! Yes, they are tweaking their color family line up to keep our selection fresh and on trend, as well as refine some of the colors in each of the color families.

Here are the new colors (or actually most are returning In Colors!):

This graphic outlines the retiring colors and the realignment of each family:

Lots of great color selection, and I really think the new alignment of colors works well! Now I just have to wait to see what the NEW 2013-2014 In Colors are and how THEY will work with this new configuration!

Kard Klass

2013-03-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

This year I have started a Kathy's Kard Klass on the first Saturday of every month. We make 10 cards, two of each design and have fun making them with the sentiment of choice. Everyone gets to make the kind of cards they actually need and will use! One design can even be used for a masculine event. Those kind of cards are always a challenge to make! Don't you agree?

March's klass was fun. We made these cards and everyone loved the simple designs. My goal is to design cards that are cute/pretty yet simple enough that everyone can go home and recreate them!

I think I succeeded with this batch! April 6th is my next event. Check out my event calendar HERE to see all the details and to RSVP.

Looking for a dress?

2013-03-03T18:26:00.001-05:00

Today was my Team Inkerz downline meeting, and four members were able to attend. After the business ideas and information share, we got down to business and got creative.

I love, love, love the cute Dress Up framelits that are in the Spring Occasions catalog by Stampin Up! Everyone is make these cute little dresses, so I thought it would be fun to have my Team be creative and see what we could come up with. I found frames at a local box store and turned them loose. We had a great time playing "paper dolls" and each one turned out differently.

Mine were made with blue and brown tones...imagine that! :-)

Don't you love them? I do! Oh...and I love the frames too!

Sweet Sixteen

2013-02-24T19:46:00.000-05:00

Last week I was asked by a co-worker to make a Sweet Sixteen birthday gift for her daughter. She wasn't sure what she wanted, but thought maybe the birthday girl would like her favorite candy bar to be involved. I suggested she write out 16 reasons why she loved her daughter, and I would make cards and wraps for the candy bars. It was agreed to go that route, and this is what I made, but first let me apologize for the picture. I have no idea why it looks like the camera has a fish eye lens...it is my regular point and shoot camera!

I made wrappers for the candy bars - KitKats - then made small 3"x 3" cards that were adhered to the outside of each candy bar. I made them all different using lots of the More Amour Designer Series Paper and many stamps and embellishments.

I am anxious to hear what she thought of the gift. The mother had family members friends write the messages, so it should have made for a great birthday gift! Keep this in mind for any special occasion in your family. Everyone likes to hear that they are loved!

Vintage Anyone?

2013-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last evening was my Thursday Thumpers stamp club meeting. We always have a great time, lots of chatter and catching up with everyone as well as good snacks. One member, Jody, was absent because she was just getting over the flu.

One of the Thumpers has a birthday next week, so our hostess, Donna brought a birthday cookie to share. We, of course, couldn't put the actual number of candles on the cookie, since it would cause the smoke detector to go off, so we settled for symbolic groups of candles. Hope you have a great birthday Christy! :-) Love you!

One of the projects we did used the fun flower trim as well as a piece of Tea for Two designer paper and one of our cute little doilies. My daughter-in-love went totally creative on me and changed things up. I. love. it. !.

I always am amazed at what my stampers come up with when they stretch outside their comfort zone and "create". They all use the very same materials, yet often the result is extremely different.

Good job, Angela!

Masculine Card

2013-02-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

I've been sharing the cards that we made in my February Kard Klass these past few posts. I have been excited to share them because they were all originals...no copying! The last card for the Klass was the masculine card and I knew I wanted to use the chevron stamp from the "Oh Hello!" stamp set I received FOR FREE at Leadership in January. So...what's a demo to do? Give the product to her assistant and let her create!!!

And what a great job she did! Lisa took my general idea, paired it with the Sale-a-Bration set "Feeling Sentimental" and this was the result!

I like the Daffodil Delight with the Basic Gray and Basic Black. Great job Lisa!!!

Stippled Blossom - 2

2013-02-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

I loved the Stippled Blossom card from THIS POST so wanted to use it again for class. One of my favorite color combinations, other than blue and brown (which shall forever remain at the top of the list!), is purple and green.

This card uses Gumball Green for the base with the two step blossom stamping done in Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant on Very Vanilla cardstock.

This is such a quick card that would be appropriate for many occasions. Don't you agree!

Postage Due

2013-02-04T06:37:00.000-05:00

I. love. this. card. There, I said it. What do you think?

This card uses the set Postage Due, and is mainly one large collage-y stamp. I stamped this first with Crumb Cake all over, then used daubers to add color to specific parts. I used Night of Navy on the bicycle, Tempting Turquoise on the number 3, and Rose Red on the flowers. The initial layer of Crumb Cake softened the other colors and makes it look very vintage. The card base uses Crumb Cake (although it does look green here) and Rose Red. A few wraps of linen thread, some sponging and tearing and it's done!

Vine Street

2013-02-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

Another card we made in Kathy's Kard Klass yesterday is this one, using the Sale-a-Bration embossing folder - Vine Street. This folder won't be available after March 22nd, so get it while you can! I love it! We also used the SAB freebie - Pretty Petites and corresponding punch for the fun labels in the scallops.

The "stems" are actually a strip of petals cut from the embossed cardstock piece and then trimmed around the leaves. I'm not sure everyone really enjoyed the snipping, but it sure made the cards look cute!

Colors include Melon Mambo, Marina Mist, and Daffodil Delight, with Rich Razzleberry for the card base. Too cute!

Bloomin' Marvelous

2013-02-02T08:17:00.001-05:00

Wow, I've been busy in my classroom the past few evenings and have lots to share with you over the next few days.

I have a class this morning and I vowed that the five card designs we would make would all be original - no copying, no casing, no "lifting" of ideas. Having said all that...it turned out amazing!!! I did have the help of my assistant, so it is true that two minds are often better than one!

This card I'm sharing today is a fun one using a Sale-a-Bration free stamp set and one of our doilies offered in the Spring catalog. Our 2.5 circle punch just fits the center of the doily! Woot! Woot!

I used Calypso Coral cardstock and ink with Lucky Limeade and Pool Party thrown in. The picture, of course, doesn't do this card justice, and you can't really tell that the flower centers have rhinestones added..

I hope the girls like it today!

Blue Ribbon

2013-01-29T06:58:00.001-05:00

How fun is this?

My daughter-in-love is truly amazing! She recently found out that she won a major "thing" and I wanted to congratulate her for her achievement. Hopefully she gets the card today, so I'm not spoiling the surprise for her.

This uses the Blue Ribbon and You are Amazing stamp sets and the scalloped piece is made with the red Glimmer Paper. Can't really tell that from the picture. It was fun to put together, especially when you have a purpose in mind as you design.

Do you stamp for certain reasons, or just for the enjoyment of stamping?

Thank yous

2013-01-27T12:05:00.001-05:00

Today is my KISS shoebox meeting and this is my project. I used the Stippled Blossoms set which is a two step stamping set.

The colors I used (which really don't look like it in this picture) are Raspberry Ripples, Primrose Petals for the cardstock and blossoms, and Gumball Green and Garden Green for the leaves. The smaller cards are 3x3 notecards I am including in packages I will be mailing tomorrow. I also used the same supplies to make this variation, which is going out as a thank you for an online order.

The little flower that you see on all of these cards are snipped off the flower tape that is in the Spring catalog. They are such fun to use, and you get like 100 of these beautiful little flowers! Seriously! I just sponged some Primrose Petal ink on them to give them some color and used glue dots to attach them to the card fronts. I added pearls on some, but you probably wouldn't use the pearls for mailing, since they add too much bulk. I love how they look though, with the pearls added, don't you?

Sale-A-Bration and Best of Sets

2013-01-22T06:47:00.000-05:00

Yippee! It's here! Sale-a-Bration! I love getting FREE stuff, and I know you all do too, so now is the time to get your wish list out and make your orders. Every $50 in product will earn you something from the Sale-a-Bration flyer FOR FREE! AND remember, that same $50 order will get you a Kathy Kredit. Collect 10 Kredits and you get to choose a stamp set out of the catalog for FREE! Another part of Sale-a-Bration is the special offered by becoming a member of my Team Inkerz group. Have you been thinking about signing up? This is an excellent time to do that too, since you will get an additional 25% in product! Click HERE to see the details!

THEN, as if that isn't exciting enough, in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the company, SU! is releasing the "Best Of" stamp sets. Each month they will release a set of images, some from the past and one or two brand new ones, that you can purchase. Each set will have a collectors sticker and collect six stickers and you can redeem them for a free stamp set valued at $14.95.

Click on the flyer to see it larger and to see the fun images that are available with the January set. Each month will have a theme, and as you can guess, January's theme is birthdays! I don't know about you, but FREE is always good! Let me know if you have questions!

Be sure to check back so I can share with you a fun new subscription service Stampin' Up! is launching soon!

Swallowtail

2013-01-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

I had my Happy Hooters stamp club meeting this past Thursday and we did some fun projects. We did variations of the two Leadership swap card designs in my earlier post here, and then also a Valentine Day design as well as my very favorite - the Swallowtail card.

First is the Valentine Day card which uses the new Honeycomb Embossing Folder and the beautiful Designer Series paper More Amore. The stamp set used is the new That's the Ticket. You might wonder about the large red heart on this card...well it is cut from the laser cut page of hearts in the DSP More Amore! There is a Read Red sheet and a Pretty in Pink sheet of hearts - 16 each!

My most favorite card that I have designed in a long time is the one using the new large Swallowtail stamp. O-M-Gosh! We used heat embossing on this one with Pool Party embossing powder, and then we lightly sponged Certainly Celery ink in the white areas of the embossed wings. Too beautiful for words! I love the soft colors of this card!

Remember, you are welcome to ask any questions about my projects. Just leave a comment, or email me directly and I will respond right away. I only use current Stampin' Up! products (unless I specifically say something is retired) so you can be confident you can find the products in my online store HERE.

Today is cleaning day in the classroom. I left it in such a mess for Leadership, that I have to clean a bit so I have room to do fun stuff to show you with all my new product from the Spring catalog!
Next post I'll be sharing some of the fun new promotions SU! has going. Be sure to check back!

Leadership Swaps

2013-01-19T07:19:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in the last post, I have recently returned from the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference that was held in Orlando, Florida. This was my first conference and I have to say it was awesome! Not only did we get lots of fun freebie product, but they also crammed my noggin with so many great ideas and inspiration it is unbelievable! This is SU!'s 25th anniversary and we will be celebrating all year long!

I promoted to Manager this past summer, so I was able to attend Manager's Reception, which was held at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was so fun! Since it was dark, my pictures didn't all come out well, so I "borrowed" a picture of Hogwart's from another demo.

We had hor d'oeuvres -

And, of course, Butter Beer! Yum!

I didn't do a lot of swapping because I wanted to enjoy the total experience, but I did swap a little. Here are the two I took:

So, all in all, I had a great time and came home with so many great ideas! SU! told us they will be trying lots of different ideas in the coming months. I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves!

New Year...New Resolve

2013-01-16T22:09:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! I know...it is more than halfway through January.

I have just returned from Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference and I learned so much. The main thing that I came away with was that I need to be consistent with this blog, or stop. Simple as that.

I don't want to stop, so that leaves me to get my act together with this blog and my whole "business" model. Readers only stop by if the blogger writes consistently, and provides information and samples that are timely and relevant. So, that is what I will do. I am challenging myself to tape and publish a video by April 1st (no joke!) so I need to hear from you on what you would like me to do for my first one. Please leave me a comment below because I need your feedback!

The weekend before I left for Leadership, I held my monthly Kard Klass where we made 5 different designs (2 cards of each). The designs were such that a variety of sentiments could work, so the stampers could make them the type of card they needed! It was a great success, and something that I will carry over from month to month.

Here are the cards we made for January and they all were well received.

See how they are generic enough that any sentiment will work? I'll make sure to have a card that will be suitable for a masculine occasion too.

If you are local, be sure to check out my website calendar HERE for details. My Kard Klasses are always held on the first Saturday of each month.

The Blizzard of 2012

2012-12-26T10:04:00.002-05:00

Wow! 2012 is going out with a bang! Blizzard conditions here, only 10 am and we already have about 5" of snow with more to come! So glad my office decided to close! Now I have a pot of beans cooking, cornbread ready to pop in the oven, and DH and I are snug as a bug!

I have been taking pictures every hour..and made this quick My Digital Studio page...kind of lets you know just how quickly it came. 7am just saw a skiff of snow...9am shows total whiteness! 10 am is more of the same....

Hope you are all warm and safe...Happy New Year!

How about cute holiday packaging?

2012-11-29T15:15:00.004-05:00

November 29 – January 2

Are you looking for cute ways to package little treats and gifts for co-workers, teachers, neighbors, and friends? At 20% savings, holiday packaging bundles are an affordable and adorable solution.

Add a treat or gift and assemble.

You can make your holiday gift giving less stressful and without costing a lot!

Two product bundles are detailed below. Order them online from my store or contact me for more info.

Trimmings & Tags Bundle
Item 132769
$13.50 (a $16.85 value)
Includes

Gusseted Cellophane Bags (25 bags; 5" x 3" x 11-1/2")
Snow Festival Designer Printed Tags (25 double-sided tags; 4-1/2" x 3-1/8")
Cherry Cobbler 1/4" Sweater Trim (10 yards)

Petite Treats Bundle
Item 132770
$13.50 (a $16.85 value)
Includes

Glassine Bags with die-cut edges (10 bags; 3" x 5" x 1-1/2")
Handmade Holidays Stitched Felt (8 pieces)
Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon (10 yards)

And the winner is....

2012-11-25T20:29:00.000-05:00

...comment #1 by Randi T.

4:22 PM, November 23, 2012 �

Oh my gosh!! how extremely cool!! I plan on shopping a few!! One askmetostamp.com stampin up site *ahem.... and a few etsy shop owners - I just haven't narrowed them down yet!!! Woohoo!!!

I have forwarded your address to Trish at Ribbon Roll Control and she will send your prize directly to you!

Thanks to everyone for Shopping Small!

Shop Small - blog candy!

2012-11-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well, we already have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, so why not Shop Small Saturday? I think this move to shop small businesses and provide them with much needed support is an excellent idea! I shop many small businesses (ahem, "I" am a small business owner) and find them great to deal with. I like knowing that I am helping someone keep their business and dream alive. I like the personal touch given when dealing with them, something that is oftentimes lacking in larger companies.

I can attest personally to great customer service in an incident that happened to me today. I want to give a shout out to Ribbon Roll Control www.ribbonrollcontrol.com for their outstanding customer service! If you need a tool to help organize your multitude of ribbon rolls, they are the ones to check out.

I have placed orders for several of their ribbon units, and today, while hanging one of them on the classroom wall, I broke a side piece on one unit. (Yes, I was adding yet another unit to what you see here....) :-)

I took a photo of the broken piece and shot Trish, the owner, an email asking if I could purchase a replacement piece. If that wasn't possible, I was going to buy another unit, since I still had a *few* rolls of ribbon laying on the table. She promptly replied stating she would be happy to send a replacement, no need to purchase it! I thanked her for the great customer service and mentioned I would be sharing this story on my blog. She then graciously offered me a unit to give away as blog candy! Isn't that awesome?

So...here are the rules....leave me a comment on this post (if you use a reader, then you will want to click and go to my actual blog entry to comment) and tell me which small business you will be shopping (or did shop) tomorrow. One entry per person, and posts will be accepted until 8pm (EST) Sunday, November 25th. Please include your email in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. I will draw the winning post, using random.org, after commenting closes and contact the winner for a mailing address. Trish at RibbonRollControl will send the prize directly to the lucky winner! Thanks Trish!