Absolutely Unexpected

Remember a while back I had a blog candy contest? Well the winner (Go Canucks Go!) took a while to get back to me. Turns out she had computer problems. Well I finally got her blog candy to her, and she sent me back this little package. Isn't that completely adorable??? And also completely unexpected. When you hand out a prize, you don't expect to get one yourself too.

Who is this wonderful blog stalker? Her name is Ginette Wong and she made me this cute circle card and also folded the paper ornament in the foreground. I would love to find out how to make that! She also included the ribbon and stickers. And then she packaged it all up in that great little box in the background. Wow, I feel so lucky to have such thoughtful followers.

I just can't wait!!!!!

Monday I will get the opportunity for a sneak peek at the new catalogue. I am so excited I can hardly wait - it's just like Christmas Eve - I'll hardly be able to sleep tomorrow night I bet.

Also, on Stampin' Up! will be releasing their "Last Chance" list, formerly known as the "Retiring List". As a demonstrator, I also get the privilege of knowing the list of stamp sets that will no longer be available for sale as of July 1st. This will include the In Colours as well.

Remember that you have until tomorrow evening to sign up as a new demonstrator for only $99!!!!!! It's an incredible deal. But tomorrow is the last day. Here’s all the things you get: Schoolbook Serif Alphabet stamp set (Value $50.95) Petal Party Simply Scrappin’ Kit (Value $23.95) Whisper White Craft Stamp Pad (Value $8.95) Earth Elements textured 12” x 12” card stock (Value $13.95) Business Forms (Value $39.15) Catalogues (Value $37.60) That’s a $175.75 value for $99.00! And there is no shipping or GST either!

***You have the option of changing the contents to suit your need, by swapping out the alphabet stamp set for any stamp set valued up to $51.95, choosing a different Simply Scrappin’ Kit and a different card stock colour.***And that’s not all!

By purchasing this Starter Kit you would receive 20% off any orders you choose to place until Dec 31, 2009 (5 months minimum).You would get the Stampin’ Up! magazine for the next 5 months (minimum) too! And you have peace of mind knowing that should your current situation unexpectedly change at any time during the next six months you could use your Demonstrator status to earn extra money through your very own business. This offer ends in 5 days, so please contact me to get your order in by the deadline. Time is running out! If you are interested contact me today at slfarrell@shaw.ca or sign up at my Stampin Up! website - linked on the sidebar - and on the upper right hand corner you will find the link "join". Follow the directions and type in my demonstrator code "stamperontheshore"

Congrats

I made this card for a coleague's retirement. Up until saleabration this year, I did not have any apropriate retirement stamps. This card was based on one I did for Mojo Challenge earlier this month, but instead, I turned it on its side and added the sentiments.

Stamps: Congrats. Paper: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Walk in the Park DSP, Summer Home DSP. Ink: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss. Accessories: Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon

Regional Swaps

I felt really lucky last month, when I went to Seattle Regionals. Especially while I sat in the car on the way home and checked out all the awesome swaps that I managed to get. These are a selection of some of my favourite swaps. I went down with 2 different swaps - 30 of each, and so I came home with almost 60 new cards! Again, this is a small selection of some of my favourite swaps.

This card is truly beautiful and elegant. Unfortunately I cannot credit the maker as they did not put their name on their swap. Stamps: Friends 24-7, Friends jumbo Wheel. Ink: Sahara Sand, Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey. Paper: Shimmery White, Basic Grey, Pink Pirouette. Accessories: Grosgrain Ribbon, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inch circle punches, scallop circle punch, mat pack.

This card was made by Susan Roberts-Huffman

And finally this card was made by my fellow West Coast Creator, Heather Johnston. You can find her blog linked in my sidebar. Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks. Paper: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose DSP. Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals

Ipod Rock Star

This card was made for this weeks Splitcoast Sketch Challenge. Look below for the sketch. I turned the sketch sideways and immediately thought of an ipod. I gathered some DSP I had lying around and this card was born. Can you see the glittery cardstock?

Stamps: Somethin' Somethin' Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versa Mark. Paper: from DCWV. Accessories: Star, Circles, Scallop Circle punches

Summer Love Card Class

Here's an exciting new card class. In this class you will make 8 beautiful cards and a beautiful card case. You will also get rub ons and paper to take home and make more cards with the techniques used in class.

PLUS

I am also offering you to chance to purchase the stamp set 'Great Friend' for only $25! When you add in shipping & tax that's a 20% savings. You can purchase this set when you sign up for the class. But if you are more cautious and would like to try it out, I will also offer this great deal during the class.

Tuesday Tutorial #3

Welcome to Tuesday Tutorial. Today I would like to discuss layouts with multiple photos. Much like the first Tuesday Tutorial, I would like to focus on a bunch of uninspiring photos. I'm sure you have tons of experiences where there's an important event that you would like to remember, but none of your photos are exceptional. What I try to do in those instances is create a page that is full of snapshots of the event. I feel that if you see a clever collage of photos, then the focus is on the page as a whole, instead a particular photo. The event that I wanted to remember here was my son's third birthday party. I really wanted to capture the fact that this day was full of family and lots of enjoyment.

STEP 1 - SORT and SELECT your PHOTOS

I went through all the photos and selected the "best" ones. I was looking for photos in focus, containing a large selection of family, and I wanted one of my son blowing out the candles on his cupcake. Also, I took a selection of photos of my daughter playing with a gift bag and I chose 4 that were in focus. I printed out a sheet of photos on 11x8.5 paper, a few photos on 6x4 paper and I enlarged the one of the birthday candles to 5x7. I couldn't enlarge it any more because it went out of focus. Originally I was thinking of cropping the 5x7 so I made it as large as I was comfortable. Then I cropped the photos as below.

STEP 2 - COLOUR

Next I focused on colour. I knew that I wanted to use primary colours as this was for a child's birthday party. So naturally I pulled a few out of the Bold Brights. I laid the pictures out on a few different colours until I found a few that I really liked. I used 4 different colours and black and white. You don't want to use too many colours in a busy layout.

I decided to matte a few on Glorious Green and a few on Tempting Turquoise. I knew that I wanted to use my new Choo Choo stamps from the Occasions Mini and the coordinating train track wheel. So I ran the train track wheel over Brilliant Blue cardstock, cut it out and laid it down on Real Red 12x12 cardstock.

STEP 3 - LAYOUT

I decided that I would start with a simple layout like below. I've used this layout before. I knew that a simple structure was needed as the basis of this layout. With so many photos, I knew that a basic background, with plain cardstock, was needed. Fancy DSP would overwhelm the pictures and make for a layout that was too busy.

I laid the matted photos out on the 8.5x11 cardstock and found a pleasing layout that filled most of the cardstock. You will see in the final layout below. I also popped up a few photos for emphasis and to hide flaws in other pictures. I wanted to focus on the photo of my son blowing out the candles and decided that this photo of him on the sofa with his cousins, grandmothers, and mother, captured the spirit of the day.

STEP 4 - JOURNALLING OR NOT?

I used the title "Connor Turns 3" and then I decided that was all the writing needed. All the photos are of family, and the date and year are obvious in the title, so in order to simplify the layout, I chose not to journal. After I decided not to journal, I decided to jazz up the title a bit. So I used a technique based on the scrapbook page we made at Regionals. I stamped some letters in Glorious Green, used sponge daubers and ink to colour some chipboard letters in Real Red and Brilliant Blue. I mounted them all on circles punched with my 1 3/8 inch and 1 1/4 inch circle punches. The trains were stamped in the various colours and then cut out with craft scissors. I popped out part of them with dimensionals.

I started with the title on the top of the first page and moved it to the bottom of the second page for interest. I put a few extra trains around the pictures to fill in the spaces.

Mojo 88

So here's my Mojo monday #88 entry. I've been using the Petal Party Simply Scrappin' Kit all weekend setting up another future Tuesday Tutorial - not tomorrow's but you'll see it soon I promise. Anyway, so I decided to use the kit as my colour choice basis for this challenge. I have to say that for some reason, I have been really stretching my comfort zone with the colours on Mojo Sketch challenges. It must be because the sketches are so AWESOME. This week I decided to stick right to the sketch - see it at the bottom of this post. Because the Simply Scrappin' kits are so coordinated, you don't need to spend time putting things together. This card took me 1/2 hour from start to finish. The pink and yellow flowers are stickers right out of the kit, and the orange flower is stamped from the Best Wishes & More stamp set.

Stamps: Best Wishes and More, Trendy Trees. Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive. Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive and So Saffron Cardstock. DSP from Petal Party simply scrappin. Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals, 1 3/4 inch circle punch, word window punch Brads from Making Memories

Mother In Law Monogram

So I was trying to use up my sale-a-bration DSP, and decided to make monogram cards for my MIL. The stamp is a monogram stamper from Just Rite. I have to say that the image was not as clear as a stamp from SU and I put the glitter over the letter to hide the 'flaws' in the image. I punched it out and inked the edges and then added a scallop from the #2 scallop die for the bigt shot. Stamps: Just Rite Monogram Stamper. Ink: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip. Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, DSP from Sale-a-bration. Accessories: So Saffron Grosgrain from Sale-a-bration, Scallop #2 die for the Big Shot, Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Swaps Again!

I love, love LOVE purple and green. It was natural that this swap caught my eye. It was made by Lindsay Langseth. She used Great Friend Stamps, Perfect Plum, Gable Green and Iridescent Ice EP.

This swap was made by Monica Chan. You can find her blog here. She used: Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Sincere Salutations. Paper: Riding Hood Red, Cameo Coral, Whisper White. Accessories: Eyelet Border punch.

This cute card was made by Grenda Gilhooly of Langley BC.

And finally this simple, yet effective card was made by Wanda Clasen from Franktown CO.

Sweet Birthday

These cards were made with clear stamps I bought at Michael's. The base of the layout came from Mojo Monday sketch #86. I used my Aqua Painters to colour the sweets. Paper: DSP from K&Co. Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour Paper. Ink: Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Apricot Appeal, Cameo Coral. Stamps: from Sudio G. Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Many, Many, Many Mojo's

I sat down this week with Mojo Monday's sketch and knew exactly which paper and colour combinations I wanted to use. BUT then I really struggled with this layout. (see bottom of post) I really thought that a detailed sketch like this would be simple to follow, but what I struggled with was how to make this sketch 'mine'. I couldn't quite see how to add my own creative touch to it. Anyway, I came up with four potential cards. The top one is my entry into Mojo Monday's Challenge this week, but I think the second card was my best one.

The DSP is from K&Co. (Have I mentioned before that I LOVE K&Co's paper!) Anyway everything else is from SU. Stamps: Four Square Paper: K&CO DSP, Always Artichoke, Rose Red, Groovy Guava, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White. Ink: Baja Breeze, Rose Red. Accessories: Scallop Edge, 1 1/4 inch square, 1 3/8 inch square, 1 1/4 inch circle, 1 3/8 inch circle, Scallop Circle punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

I'm So Lucky!

One of the most fabulous things about becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the group of women that you get to meet. Most of my friends' eyes glaze over with boredom when I discuss cards or scrapbooking. So once I decided to become a demonstrator and went to a few meetings with my upline groups, I met a wonderful group of women with whom to share my addiction. I have to say that I am so lucky because my direct upline is an exciting, energetic and successful demonstrator who has offered me so much support and I belong to her West Coast Creators group. But also, her upline is so sucessful that she has won several awards including Rising Star - which is a big deal in the Stampin' Up! world, and I belong to her Sea To Sky Stampers group. And her upline has been around so long that she doesn't have an upline. Her group meets 6 times a year and there are over 200 women in her group - Colourful Impressions. So basically I belong to many groups of women who meet on a regular basis. When we meet we discuss techniques and ideas, we make a few fun things, we discuss business ideas, and we swap cards. But the best part is spending time with others who share my obsession. What's truly exciting is that if you would like to join, the starter kit is on sale for only $99!!!!! That's an incredible deal, and you get more than twice the value in product as part of your starter kit. Please check out promotions on my sidebar for the link.

I have featured some of the swaps that I received at Regionals on this blog. But as I ramble on here, I actually have a point. I went to a Sea to Sky Stampers meeting this week and, of course, we swapped cards. What I realized when I took a good look at these swaps, was just how talented the women in my groups are! I am so lucky!! Anyway, I thought that today I would feature a card made by my direct upline Angela. Her blog is linked on my sidebar. I will be featuring more of these swaps in the coming weeks.

Stamps: Wonderful You. Ink: Basic Gray, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze. Paper: Basic Gray, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP. Accessories: Large Grommets, Scallop Edge Punch, Baja Breeze Satin Ribbon.

Mommy & Me Class

What you get:

-8 cards (2 of each pictured above)

-2 boxes to keep them in

-That’s 2 gifts for $25!!!!

I'm so excited to introduce this class to you. I can't wait until June 20th!! This is a Mommy & Me class. It will be held on Saturday June 6th at 11:00 am. Come and spend a fun hour with your child making this fun collection of cards. Looking for a gift for your child’s teacher or preschool/ daycare worker? This class is a fun project for you and your child to make. Suitable for school aged children, although older toddlers could quite happily participate with ‘help’. Will you need child care for other children while you attend the class? Let’s talk – I’m sure we can work something out. Babies are always welcome.

You can register online here.

Can't wait to see you there!

Boy Birthday

This card was inspired by a card that I received at regionals. You can look here to find the original by Jennifer Picard. She used the In Colours but I decided to use Bold Brights instead. The wheel is from the Occasions Mini and the sentiment is from the Birthday's Count mini note kit. The train and cloud are stickers from my stash. I am definitely going to CASE this card properly once my new In Colours cardstock arrives!!!

Tuesday Tutorial #2

Welcome to Tuesday Tutorial. This week we are doing a 1 picture 12x12 layout.

It all started with this gorgeous picture of my daughter. I feel it captures the true spirit of my daughter and her love of smiles and laughter. The colours of her eyes, her shirt and the grey pillow were straight from the Walk In The Park DSP from the current occasions mini. Sometimes I find that when I look at a picture I can immediately see something falling into place. So when I first saw this picture of her, I knew that I already had my colours. With colour taken care of, I needed to figure out a good layout. The photo was already blown up as large as I wanted. Any bigger and the picture would be blurry. I also knew that I wanted to use a 12x12 layout as my daughter`s scrapbook is 12x12 and I want this picture in her scrapbook.

Mounting the picture carefully is important in order to have the picture be the focal point despite it`s smaller size. Above are 2 examples of how I played with the colours to matte the picture. The one on the bottom was the one I chose.

Next I decided to try and find a large title for the page. I was looking through my rub on collection and found these two titles which not only went well with the colours I chose, but also fit the spirit of the page perfectly. I layered the coloured DSP with the grey floral DSP, but felt that the border was not defined enough. So I took some white cardstock and punched it with the Eyelet Border punch.

I tried out a few layouts, including this one below and eventually decided that both words needed to be at the top.

After placing the title and the photos, I used my rub-ons and coordinating stamps to add the date and the butterflies. One thing I really love about Stampin`Up! stuff is that everything coordinates with something else. It makes the planning stages MUCH easier.

Mother`s Day CASE

This card was cased from the card below. It was given to me by my MIL. (she has amazingly great taste) As soon as I saw this card I immediately knew I wanted to copy it. The stampin up .colours just jumped right out at me. Paper: Sage Shadow, Whisper White. Ink: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red. Stamps: Petal Pizzaz, Itty Bitty Buds, Trendy Trees, Season of Friendship. Accessories: Filigree Brads, Stampin`dimensionals, Word Window punch.

This card was created by caroline gardner. You can find her website at http://www.carolinegardner.com/

Fabulous Friend

This card was created by my upline and friend Angela McKay. You can find a link to her blog on my sidebar. She sent me this lovely card. It features the Matthattan Flowers Impressions Sizzix Die for the Big Shot. I believe that Angela used the brayer technique and used the debossed side of the impression. (BTW embossed would have the ridges of the flowers stand up, and the debossed side means the ridges of the flowers are `valleys`.) Colours are Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red and Tangerine Tango. Stamps: Oval All. Accessories: Large Oval and Scallop Oval punches.

Sunshine Garden Card Class

Here's a sneak peek of my new Sunshine Garden Card class. I will be having this class on June 10th at 7pm. Please RSVP by June 1st so I can order the supplies. This class includes 8 cards and envelopes stored in this cute little Bag-a-lope. I got the idea for the bag from my upline Angela. Check out her blog on my sidebar. Isn't it cute? The cards will have interchangeable sentiments to add to their versatility. I am making one of these for my MIL. Her birthday is coming up soon.

Swaps, Swaps, Swaps

More Swaps I received from Regionals in Seattle.

This one was made by my upline Angela. You can find her blog linked on my sidebar. Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral. Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Urban Garden DSP, Basic Grey. Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Accessories: Vintage Brads, Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Texturz Plates, Beads Duo, Crystal Effects, Aqua Painters.

This cute card was made by Karen Harper from Snohomish, WA. Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Cupcake Wheel. Ink: Basic Black, Pretty In Pink. Cardstock: Prety in Pink, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Whisper White. Accessories: Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, 3/4 inch circle punch, 1 inch circle punch, eyelet border punch, Stampin' Write Markers, glitter, two way glue pen, paper piercer and mat.

This one was not labeled so I can't give credit to the creator.

This card was made by Linda Heller.