Unite and Excite Event Summary

On Sunday, I had the privilege of attending one of Stampin' Up's 24 Unite and Excite Events held across the country.  This was a demo only event aimed at getting current demos to network, share ideas, and get excited about products. Our "local" event was in Livermore, CA (about an hour away from me) at the beautiful Garre Winery.  Two friend demos and I carpooled up stopping for brunch before at the Black Bear Cafe in Milipitas.

After arriving at the location (gorgeous!), we signed in and found a table.

We checked out some of the display boards and the candy bar.  We grabbed some snacks from the food spread (yum yum!). 

And then we headed over to the make and take table.  Our leader decided to use the Gratitude for Days kit.  I actually bought this kit for use at our next parent's group social.  I am going to modify the kit to create a pocket for each child.  Then, we are going to have the opportunity to write why we're grateful for each child.  It'll be the perfect addition to a scrapbook or memory wall.  We finished our make and take and socialized with a few other demos before the event started.

The event itself consisted of a few speakers discussing topics supplied by SU.  We heard about making the most of promotions, getting new customers, and kits.  We also participated in answering a few discussion questions with our fellow demos. I learned a fair amount of tips from the speakers and the discussions.  It was great getting acquaintaned with some of my fellow local demos and sharing ideas.

It was a Stampin' Up event so of course we had Prize Patrol.  And I actually won a great new holiday catalog stamp set: For All Things.

The last thing we did was the big card swap.  I decided to participate and ended up making 50 card fronts.  I got some great cards back that I will be highlighting in a few blog posts starting tomorrow.

Overall, I think this was a great event.  I got a lot of tips and ideas from other demonstrators.  I received some great card swaps.  I loved having a day out with two good friends.  And I appreciate the prizes we received.  Can't wait until SU has another event in my area!

Festival of Trees Tag Card

For this month's demo swap, we each picked a stamp set from the holiday catalog.  I immediately knew that I wanted Festival of Trees.  It's simple, yet stunning.  I can see so many possibilities...

I found a similarly designed card on Pinterest and ran with it.  This card has so many layers, and yet it seems very clean and simple to me.  I love the traditional colors and little touches (glimmer star, stars embossing).

• Stamps: Festival of Trees
• Inks: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler
• Cardstock: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Trim the Tree DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper
• Accessories: Frosted Sequins, Green ribbon (non-SU)
• Tools: Scallop Tag Punch, Stars Embossing Folder, Tree Punch

Sunday Haul #14

Just a stop in to Michael's this week.  I took advantage of their 40% off one item coupon and their 20% off everything coupon on Labor Day.

I ended up with:

• Pack of white envelopes
• Pack of Kraft envelopes
• Pack of cream envelopes
• Snail refill
• BH PL Envelopes variety pack (been needing these for a long time...)

30 Days of Lists -- Days 1-5

Have you heard about 30 Days Of Lists?  Created by Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon and Raspberry, 30 Days of a Lists is a semi-annual journalling challenge.  In March and September, they provide you with one topic a day.  You then run off and create a list.

Simple Fresh Prints

The other day I pulled out my almost untouched Fresh Prints DSP stack.  It's retired, but I love the colors and patterns so much.  I did a quick peek at my Pinterest boards and pulled out the below card for inspiration.

Card #1

Card Inspiration from Stampin' on the Fly

My version

Really I just changed up the patterns the style of ribbon and sentiment.  I ended up really loving this simple and easy card with its great use of DSP.

• Stamps: I Like You
• Inks: Real Red
• Cardstock: Kraft; Fresh Prints DSP (retired)
• Accessories: Brights Candy Dots; Coastal Cabana Ruffled Stretch Trim (retired)
• Tools: Pansy Punch

Card #2

Just a slight pattern change to make a completely different card.

• Stamps: I Like You
• Inks: Real Red
• Cardstock: Kraft; Fresh Prints DSP (retired)
• Accessories: Metallic jewels (non-SU); Coastal Cabana Ruffled Stretch Trim (retired)
• Tools: Pansy Punch

5 on 5

On the 5th of each month I'll be highlighting five pictures of crafty projects, inspiration pieces, or fun products.  I wanted to add some great pictures and give everyone a bit of insight into my creative process.

1. State of my desk a few days ago.  Trying to get my holiday blog hop and holiday swap cards finished.

2. Unite and Excite event swaps and Holiday swaps done and ready to be distributed.  And I even finished them early!

3. Itching to use this pretty Halloween paper (even if it's retired, I still love it).

4. Cleaning out my craft stash.  This is the trash bag, but I also made another bag for Goodwill and a small bag for door prizes and giveaways.

5.  Added embellishments to my PL supply stash.  Now I really should try and catch up on our weeks...

Fun 'n Crafty Blog Hop September 2014

Welcome to the Fun n’ Crafty Blog Hop for September This month we will be showcasing project ideas from the new Holiday Catalog. Last year's holiday catalog did not impress me.  The company has more than made up for it with this year's catalog.  I want all the things! After a bit of play, I finally decided on using my new Christmas tree punch. And I absolutely love how it turned out. So make sure to check out the list of stops on the hop at the bottom of this post to see them all!

This card is all about my new holiday catalog supplies.  I found a cute idea of creating a shaker card behind a punched image and knew i wanted to use my new Tree punch.  After a bit of trial and error (forgot to add another layer of plastic to contain the sequins), I successfully made a shaker card!  Adding a bit of bling with some silver glimmer helped complete the sentiment and the card.  If I can find a way to make the shaker pocket faster, this would be a great fun Christmas card to send to family.  Might have to play a bit more.  But overall, I adore my new holiday catalog products and can't wait to experiment some more.

Supplies Used:

• Stamps: Festival of Trees
• Inks: Garden Green
• Cardstock: Garden Green; Pistachio Pudding; Whisper White; Silver Glimmer Paper; Trim the Tree DSP
• Accessories: Frosted Sequins
• Tools: Tree Punch

Blog Hop Participants:

• Sara G of 1200 Some Miles
• Tobe B. of The Craft Sea
• Pam W of Stinky Tofu
• Jennifer B. of Northwest Stamper
• Angela M of Stamp with Angela

Simple In Colors

A simple card today using some of our current in colors.

I found this design on Pinterest (of course!), and knew that i had to CASE it.  I pulled out my 2013-2015 In Colors and went to town using the fun patterns. The resulting card is just simple and gorgeous. I may just have to use this idea for a simple card class.

• Stamps: Kinda Eclectic
• Inks: Baked Brown Sugar
• Cardstock: Baked Brown Sugar; Whisper White; 2013-2015 In Color DSP
• Accessories: Metallic jewels (non-SU); Baked Brown Sugar Ruffled Stretch Trim (retired)
• Tools: Pansy Punch

September 2014 Crafting Goals

A recap of last month’s goals:

• Participate in at least 5 card making challenges (e.g. Mojo Monday, Dynamic Duos, etc) – Fail! I did participate in a few demo swaps, but no challenges.  I really want to do more challenges.
• Complete July and August’s monthly pages -- Fail! I just don't think this project is going to go anywhere.  I should just scrap it.
• Plan out two crafts for Arthur’s birthday party in October – Fail! Just didn't get around to it.
• Put up my retired sets to sell on the FB groups – Success!  I put some things onto FB to sell and actually got rid of some things.  Other supplies I am RAKing. Finally getting rid of the extra.
• Reorganize my DSP box – Success! I got things organized and realized that I have way too much retired DSP.
• Delete one retired DSP Pinterest board – Fail! Been playing with all my new toys instead of getting rid of the retired.

This month’s goals:

• Plan out classes and sample cards for September and October -- With my newly formed crafting Meetup group, my partner and I scheduled a ton of classes for the next two months.  Now I need to get my butt in gear and actually make the sample cards and supply lists.
• Create a for sale/for free box to put out at classes -- I need to do another weed out of my stash for free and for sale things.  Hopefully I can get rid of all this stuff before Christmas.
• Finish and document my 30 Days of Lists -- I signed up and paid for the class.  Now I need to just actually keep up with the lists.
• Catch up on PL albums (family and Arthur) -- I'm only a few weeks behind.  Time to get caught up before the holidays are upon us.
• Reorganize my PL card collections -- I feel like I have PL card sets all over the craft class and I do.  I need a better system of storing and easily pulling out any given card set.  It's an ongoing issue...
• Finish my Holiday and Demo event swap cards -- I have 10 cards to make for the Holiday swap and 50 cards to make for the event swap.  That's two designs and 60 cards to make within the first week of the month.  This should be interesting.

Sunday Haul #13

My second big holiday catalog order came in on Friday (minus one backordered stamp).  So much fun to play with!

• Glue sticks
• Sponge dauber
• Basic rhinestones
• Cherry Cobbler Reinker
• Bermuda Bay Ink
• Happiness Is Project Life Card Collection
• Happiness Is Project Life Accessory Pack
• Tangerine Tango Trim
• Basic Gold Metal Buttons

• 12x12 2013-2015 In Color Cardstock
• Blackberry Bliss Cardstock
• Bermuda Bay Cardstock
• Tangerine Tango Cardstock
• Holiday Catalogs

• For All Things stamp set
• Fall Fest stamp set
• Fall Fun Framelits
• Ovals Collection Framelits
• Circles Collection Framelits
• Scallop Tag Punch

As an added order, I snagged the big pack of Design A page protectors for only $8.75 on Amazon.  It was too big a deal to pass up.