Thank You, Friend.

Good morning!

My cards today are a sampling of some thank you cards that I recently made to give to my Stampin Up customers for their class orders. The main image uses one of the hostess sets from the Spring Summer Catalog and the stamp set Bitty Birthday - I love this adorable little set! I think they go perfectly together.

I made a bunch of these cards one day all using different papers from my various scrap drawers. I have one drawer for each of Stampin Up's color family - so it's really easy to dig through when I'm making projects. Whenever these drawers get a little too full, I'll sit down and make a bunch of cards just like these ones that I can either have on hand to give out to my customers or to give as gift sets! I love the challenge of trying to make the colors and scrap sizes all work together with my Cuttlebug & paper punches.

So, to help thin down my scrap drawers one day, I took my SU 3 Flower paper punch and punched lots *and I mean LOTS!!* of the little pieces of cardstocks from all of SU's color families to make my own bottle of 'Primas' - ready to use on all my projects. That punch took a beating that day - as did my hand!!

I ended up with 6 bottles of flowers - Bold Brights, Soft Subtles, Earth Elements, Rich Regals, In Colors, Neutrals. The bottles were from a Prima Flower set I bought several years ago. I dumped all those flowers into one of my drawers to make it easier to sort through.

I use these bottles all the time! When I am scrapbooking or cardmaking for myself, I use Stampin Up's Cardstock almost exclusively, so this works great for me. I did find that the new Boho Blossoms flowers are a little tight for this size bottle, so I don't have many of those flowers in these bottles. I think some larger glass bottles may be in my future - especially since SU just released the new In Colors for '08 and I don't have any more bottles! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

My Favorite Layout

Card Details: all Stamping Up products: Garden Whimsey, All Holidays; Cardstock: Mellow Moss, So Saffron, Mustard, Vanilla, True Thyme, Le Jardin dsp; Punches: Lrg & Sm oval, ticket corner; Sponge Daubers; Inks: Craft - Artichoke, Mellow, Cocoa, Mustard, Saffron; Iridescent Ice Embossing powder; Cropadile; Jumbo Eyelets; Ribbon: Wide Vanilla Grosgrain, Moss Taffeta

I hope you don't mind me sharing a few more SU workshop cards with you today. We made these several months ago ... so they are a little out of season, but they are some of my favorite Stampin Up cards that I've made recently.

I called this post "My Favorite Layout" because if you take a close look you'll see that each of the cards have basically the same layout, with just a few changes. This is my go-to layout of choice. It works with almost every stamp image I own, I think!

Over the years, I have learned to embrace my own style with papercrafting. I found that I prefer to keep my layouts simple, so I can spend more time with coloring techniques and embellishments. I love all the sketches that are out there and use them for inspiration, but I always seem to revert back to a few of my tried and true layouts!

I'm also very stingy when it comes to my designer paper. I have SO much of it, but I still can't stand to waste it! So, this plays a factor in my layouts as well. When prepping for classes, I almost always cut my 12x12 paper into 4" strips, so I can get at least 10-12 cards from each 12x12 sheet of designer paper.


Card Details: All SU - Abundant Joy, Fine Lace; Cardstock: black, glossy white, pomegranate, pale plum; Brayer; Versamark, Pale Plum ink; Clear embossing powder; Wide satin pom. ribbon; paper piercer & template; rubbing alcohol & reinkers: pale plum, pomegranate; slot & ticket corner punches; silver brads
The first card was super simple. We used Craft ink spots to color & shade the bold images and then heat embossed it with my favorite SU embossing powder: Iridescent Ice. I love the sparkle of that powder! The butterfly was cut out and popped up for some added dimension.

The second card features a favorite technique of mine and my SU customers: polished stone. *Splitcoast Stampers has an awesome tutorial on Polished stone. Check it out here.* On the bottom paper, we stamped the Fine Lace background in versamark on glossy white paper, heat embossed in clear embossing power and then brayered over it with pale plum ink.
Card Details: All Stampin Up - Bloomin' Beautiful; Paper - Chocolate, Guava, Brushed Gold, Glossy, Vanilla; Ink - Versamark, Chocolate; Gold Embossing powder; Button, Brads, Caramel Gingham; Satin Wide Chocolate Ribbon; Reinkers: Guava, Cocoa & Gold for polished stone; Guava & Wasabi for watercoloring flower; aqua painter; Lrg & Sm Oval punches
The third card shows a technique of mine that I call 'painted polished stone.' I'm not sure if this is a real technique that anyone else does or not, but it's one of my favorite ways to make my polished stone images pop.
After I finish my polished stone background and my stamped image has had time to dry, I take my reinkers and aqua painter and paint the image. It helps the image to really stand out and adds so much to my polished stone look, I think. Try it the next time you do your polished stone and see what you think!
Have you tried watercoloring on glossy paper? It is so fun and I love how it looks when it's done. It's very vibrant and dries very quickly, by the way.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of your day!
Jessica

Open House Projects

Hi!

I'm having an Open House tomorrow and thought I'd share the cards we'll be making with my blogging friends today.

The third card features some of the brand new products Stampin Up will introduce in their new catalog coming out in a few weeks. I love this designer paper and stamp set.

All three cards are pretty basic, so I won't bore you with the details - let me know if you have any questions.

I'm on my way out the door to teach a fun class at GinaK's tonight - Copics! We'll be doing lots of coloring - I can't wait!

Have a great rest of your day & thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

Girl Friends & Blog Candy Winner Announced!

edited to Update: We have a WINNER!! Random.org picked poster #9:

Congrats to you Jessica!! What a year it has been for you. I can't wait to take some more classes with you at the store. Way to go!!Peggy F(lefsegirl)
July 25, 2008 9:38 PM

Whoohoo, Peggy! I'm so thrilled for you! Email me the stamp set of your choice and we'll get it right out to you!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment and leaving me some love on my new blog. It has been so fun meeting you all & I'm already planning my next blog candy which I'll post in a few days.

and... Happy Birthday to my Dad! I hope you had a great day!

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Isn't Melanie's new 'Little Tees' stamp set adorable? I love the versatility of her T-shirts - there's just so many ways that you can use the stamps to create whatever look you're in the mood for! I've seen such great cards made with this set already and am sure there will be many more awesome cards coming soon once everyone receives their orders!

On this card, I decided to paper piece one of the T-shirts, but not in the traditional paper piecing fashion. Instead of using patterned paper, I pulled out my 'Friend by Definition' Stampin Up Background stamp and stamped it on white textured paper in SU's new In Color Tangerine Tango. Then, I stamped Mel's T-shirt in black and colored the collar with an orange Copic marker and cut it out.

The other T-shirt was stamped on textured white paper with SU's new In Color Pacific Point. Then, I took my Sakura glitter pen and watercolored with it blending the glitter and the ink to soften the blue a little. My tutorial Watercoloring Sakura Style can be found here. The hearts are an old Family Treasures Corner punch I've had for a while. Both sizes were a perfect size for decorating this little Tee.

When I was at CHA, I met an amazing designer for Ranger named Wendy. She showed several techniques with Rangers Perfect Pearls, Distress Reinkers & their mini misters. I tried it out on the cuttlebug background papers - it's really hard to get a photo of the shimmer, but I hope you can see it a little better on the photo below.

Today on her blog, Studio 490, Wendy has a tutorial with step by step pictures of how to get this look. Go check it out - she also shows how to use grungeboard to make an adorable flower. Don't hate me, but I have a 'Wendy original' flower and tag just like the one she shows for her tutorial - signed by the artist herself!! How lucky am I?! If you go to her blog, tell her that her BFF Jessica from CHA sent you. That's what she signed on the back of the flower she gave me, so if SHE can call me her BFF, you'd better believe I'm going to call her that!! LOL!

Speaking of Distress Ink information, Cindy from Starlitstudio compiled an awesome list of notes she took while watching Tim Holtz in action at CHA. It's a valuable tip sheet for those of us who love Tim Holtz's Distress Line with Ranger and are eager to learn how to use all his cool stuff! I had the chance to meet Cindy at CHA too - she is such a sweetheart. Her altered notebooks are so cool.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

Card details: Little Tees, Friend by Definition, Studio G mini abc; SU paper & ink: pacific point, baja breeze, tangerine tango, ww; SU basic black; Family Treasure corner heart punch; SU scallop border, key tab punch; EK success connected heart punch; Cuttlebug, embossing folders; Sakura glitter pen, aqua painter; Ranger: mini mister, perfect pearls, old paper distress ink refill, inkssentials blender & foam; Queen & Co. orange brads

Whatever Floats your Boat!

Hi everyone!

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post from Friday *click on the link to take you to the correct post* to be entered to win a free GinaK Designs stamp set of your choice. I'll announce the lucky winner a little while after the 7:00 pm deadline!

Today, I'm sharing the set of 4 cards I made with Rupa's adorable set Whatever Floats your Boat. These little animals have such personality - I love the eyes!

The four animals were stamped on textured Bazzil cardstock in Versafine Black ink and colored with Koh-i-noor pencils & Gina's odorless mineral spirits. While I usually use Stampin Up's whisper white cardstock for this technique, sometimes I want a soft textured look, so I pull out some textured Bazzil cardstock to color on. If you've tried prisma pencils and have been frustrated with the blendability of some colors, try Koh-i-noors. They will shock you with how blendable they are.

I rubbed ink on the Cuttlebug embossing folders *the side with the Cuttlebug logo on* before I ran the paper through to emboss. I like to do this technique with tone on tone colors, so I used the same colored paper & inks for a subtle shading. It really helps the embossing to pop.

I punched out the stars with my well loved EK Success Star punches and then ran them through to emboss. Afterwards, I took my sponge dauber and shaded all around the star edges.

Card Details: Whatever Floats your Boat; SU papers & inks: soft sky, wasabi, river rock; SU afternoon tea dsp & ww; SU punches: corner rounder, scallop border, my way arrow, large square; Cuttlebug & embossing folders; Ranger's Inkssentials White Gel pen; Marvy Scallop square punch; Gems: EK success star punches; Making Memories 1/16 eyelets & eyelet setter; paper piercer; Black Stazon; Koh-i-noor pencils; OMS; blending stumps; Sakura glitter pen; aqua painter; Staedlter journaling pens

When you spend so much time making the outside of your cards look pretty, I think it's a nice touch to decorate the insides of the cards too! I don't always take the time to do this, but I find it adds such a polished look to my projects.

I hand drew the double lines around the white cardstock with my favorite multiliners - my black Staedlter pens. I love to use the .1 and .3 tips for this look. You may have noticed I outlined the arrow punch out on the cardfront. When I first began scrapbooking years ago, I started outlining photo & journaling mats and have always loved how it highlights the image I've matted.

I'm often asked how I get my lines so straight and I always say that I don't! That's why I usually have spaces when I draw my lines - it adds character and covers up my boo-boos. It's hand-made so it's not supposed to be perfect, right?!

After I drew my frame, I used Koh-i-noor pencils, OMS & blending stumps to color & shade. A few dots here and there around the frame, and it's finished!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

Flowers for Daisy

Hi!

Thank you so much for the warm welcome that I've received from everyone! Be sure to leave your comment on this post *click on the post link* to be entered to win my first blog candy!

Yesterday, I shared one of my daisy cards from Asela's new Flowers for Daisy stamp set and thought I would share the rest of them today.

I've mentioned before that I rarely make just one card at a time when I'm stamping. I usually stamp my main image 3 or 4 times and experiment with different papers from my scrap drawers and see what happens. It's my eclectic way of stamping and it works well for me.


I wish your computer screen had 'feel-a-vision' because I used flock on both of these flowers. This one has flock on the brown center. It's pretty hard to get a good photo of the texture, so you'll just have to believe me or come in to Gina's store to feel it for yourself! LOL!

Can you see the shine on the cuttlebug background in the card above? It's from one of my favorite products: CraftT Embossing paste. Gina recently began carrying all the color sets that they offer in her store in McFarland. I pulled them out to do some experimenting on these cards and love the shimmery look they added!

Card Details: Flowers for Daisy; Bazzil textured cardstock; K&Co. dsp; SU ww; Palette black ink; Nestabilities; EK success corner punches; Gems; Copic Markers; Sakura's glue pen; Doodlebug Flock; Archaic Fibers & glazed brads; sanding block; cuttlebug & embossing folders; colored CraftT metallic paste

The photo of the last card kind of washed out the metallic paste that I rubbed over the daisy frame and the embossed cuttlebug paper. It's yellow and works great for a sun-kissed look. Since the other cards in this set were made with dark, rich colors, I wanted to go bright with this last one and the shimmery yellow paste worked great!

The daisy is covered entirely with Doodlebug's Flock. It's really velvety - I wish you could feel it! Flock is so easy to use and adds a great touch - literally! - to many stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

New Opportunities; New Friends - BLOG CANDY ALERT!

Card Details: Summer Harvest, Versafine Black ink; Clear Embossing powder; peerless watercolors; twinkling h2o's; aqua painter; crystal lacquer; Nestabilities; SU ribbons; Glitter Dots; Stickles; Primas; CraftT Colored Embossing Paste

I'm so excited that Gina has invited me to join her design team! It has been a pleasure working for her at her store in McFarland - she's the best bosslady ever! Thanks for the opportunity to work and teach at your store and now to be on your design team, Gina!

Card Details: Whatever Floats your Boat; SU solid & dsp & coordinating inks; EK Success Star Punches; Cuttlebug & Embossing Folders; Stazon; Koh-i-noor pencils; OMS; blending stumps; Sakura Glitter Pen; Fine Detail Staedtler pens; SU My Way arrow punch, scallop border punch & corner rounder; Dollar Store Gems; MM mini eyelets; paper piercer; Ranger's Inkssentials White Gel pen; SU square punch; Marvy Scallop Punch

I am also blessed to call Rupa - one of her talented illustrators - my friend. Isn't this little mouse sweet? I love this newest set of hers and so does my 7 year old daughter Ashley. Tonight, she made me a sweet little love note with this mouse image... one I'll treasure always!

Card Details: Flowers for Daisy; Bazzil Cardstock; K&Co. dsp; SU ww; Versafine Black ink; Clear Embossing powder; Nestabilities; Copic Markers; Sanding block; EK Success large corner rounder; Basic Grey Archaic Fibers & Glazed Brads

And then there's Asela. I have been a fan of hers for several years now. Her coloring is always gorgeous. I'm so thankful when she takes the time to describe in detail her coloring steps. I've learned a lot from her - wouldn't it be awesome to take a coloring class from her?! Her illustration style is so classy and she is a great addition to GinaK Designs. I'm looking forward to seeing many more stamp sets from her in the future!

The cause behind Flowers for Daisy is so touching and one that only makes me admire Asela and Gina more. (click on their names to read the story behind the stamp set.)

Card Details: Little Tees; SU '08 In Colors & WW & coordinating inks; SU scallop border punch & round tab punch; Hero Arts gems; paper piercer; Ranger's Inkssentials White gel pen; Cuttlebug & Embossing Folders; Sakura Glitter pen & aqua painter

I was able to meet Melanie last weekend when Gina and I went to CHA. She is full of ideas for some awesome stamp sets - I'm excited to see what she'll come up with next. This T shirt set is such a great idea and one that I know will get a lot of ink!

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So, how about some blog candy to celebrate my design team news!

Since this is the first time I've ever done this how about we make the question nice and easy....

What is your favorite GinaK Designs stamp set?

hmmm... maybe that's harder than I thought! I love them all, but if I had to choose only one, I think I'd pick Just Keep Swimming because I love those sea critters! They're perfect for any coloring medium!

Comment on this post with your favorite GinaK Stamp set by Monday, July 28th at 7 PM and I'll choose one random winner to receive the stamp set of their choice.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

Two Scoops of Daisies

This is the other project we'll be making for the Stop & Stamp event at GinaK Design's store in McFarland on Saturday. Come anytime between 10:30 and 3 - I'd love to see you there!

I love this monthly event at Gina's store! The price is awesome too. If you spend $50 that day at her store, the cards are free. Otherwise, it's just $5 to make them both and learn some new techniques while you're at it!

Asela's new stamp set Flowers for Daisy is such a fun one to color. I colored this simple daisy with various Copic markers to match some of the different papers in this beautiful Basic Grey Two Scoops paper pack. I love how all the elements match so well together!

Card Details: Flowers for Daisy; Palette Burnt Umber; Basic Grey Two Scoops paper, buttons, brads, fibers; EK success large corner rounder; Distress Old Paper; Bazzil cream & textured paper; Copic markers; cropadile

I can't decide which color I like best... how about you?

Thanks for stopping by - and I hope to see some of you on Saturday at the store!
Jessica

Shiny Berries!

Hi!

If you're able to stop by GinaK's store on Saturday for our Stop & Stamp - here's one card we'll make together. There's a slight difference between these two cards: the designer papers and how I applied the Colored Crystal Lacquer.

On the top card, I colored over the stamped image with Sakura's Glitter pen and then filled in the shapes with a variety of colored Crystal Lacquer. Below, I skipped the glitter and colored only with Crystal Lacquer.

They are both great looks - it will be fun seeing which one everyone chooses to make!


Card Details: Summer Harvest; Giga Circles Frames; Black stazon; Bazzil and DCWV dsp; SU ww; Nestabilities; Colored Crystal Lacquer; Sakura glitter pen

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

Cute Critters

Hi again!

I have a few more cards to show you today! These cards were made with some cute critters that Stampin Up released in last year's catalog. I love cutesy stamps like these and was happy to add them to my collection.

The skunk was colored with OMS & SU's Pure Color pencils. The elephant was paper pieced and shaded with SU's markers. Finally, the lamb was colored with markers. Can't get much easier than that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

3x3 Gift Cards

Hi!

Today's post is a quick one as I'm on my way to work at Gina's store in a few minutes.

I love making 3x3 mini cards - they are so quick and easy! I made these a while back with a favorite retired Stampin Up set of mine called "On the Move." These little images are perfect for this sized card.



I used Stampin Up's Craft Ink spots to edge the dark cardstock bases - it leaves a soft chalk-like finish to the edges. And, it's super easy to do - just take the ink spots and rub the edges of the cardstock. On some of them, I also stamped some small images from other SU stamp sets with the craft ink as well.

Then, I took my heat gun and dried the ink. That's the key to craft ink on dark paper. Once you heat it, it dries to a lighter, soft finish. Experiment with different colors on different cardstock - they'll all be a little different! My favorite spot families for this technique are the soft subtles and earth elements. They really seem to pop when heated!


Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

Watercoloring Sakura Style Tutorial

Card Details: Friendship Boutique; Rectangle Greetings; Cardstock: DCWV dsp & Bazzil textured & SU ww; Ink: Stazon; Sakura Glitter Pens; Aqua painter; Marvy Scallop punch; Fiskars Corner Scissors; K&Co. Gems; Primas; Stickles

I'd like to share with you today one of the cards we made at last month's Stop & Stamp Class at GinaK Design's store in McFarland. We watercolored this beautiful stamped image with Sakura's glitter pens and an aquapainter. This is one of my favorite ways to add a shimmery glitter to a stamped image.

I don't know if this is an official technique, but it's one that I've enjoyed doing for a while now. I watched a demonstration at a local stamp store a few years ago with Sakura glitter pens. While she was coloring with the pens, I noticed how the pen ink remained wet on the paper for a short period of time. I began to experiment with these glitter pens in my stamp room on different papers and found that they lend themselves well to watercoloring.

When I began working at Gina's store, I showed this technique to her. She was the one who came up with the fun name for this technique: "Watercoloring Sakura Style."


Watercoloring Sakura Style Tutorial

Stamp your image in Stazon or your favorite waterproof ink. The best papers for this technique are coated cardstocks or Watercolor paper . This stamped image is from Karen Lockhart. It's one of the practice papers we were given to play with at the Copic Certification class in Milwaukee last week. It is stamped in Momento black ink on Neenah smooth white cardstock.


Work on small areas at a time so that the pen ink doesn't have time to dry. Follow the lines of your stamp then wash over the pen ink with your aqua painter - just like the Colored Pencils & OMS technique.



The best images for this technique are detailed ones. Working with one leaf or flower at a time will produce the best results. Don't overblend the pen ink with water from the aqua painter or the paper will pill and/or some pen lines may remain and be unable to blend away.

For larger areas, it is sometimes helpful to do a light water wash over the area you're going to color with the aqua painter first. While the paper is still damp, draw a few strokes along the image line with the glitter pen, and then blend with the aqua painter. That's what I did for the flowers and the large flower pot.


To highlight the watercolored spots, take the same colored pen and retrace over a few lines. Don't brush the aquapainter over these areas so that the lines will remain bold.

The clear Sakura glitter pen is my favorite pen of all. I use it on almost anything when I've finished coloring. Following these same steps outlined above, you can watercolor with the clear pen over Copics, OMS & Coloring Pencils, Watercolor Crayons & Pencils, etc. It adds a shimmer and shine that looks a lot like Twinkling H2O's, but with a lot less work.
I hope the pictures help walk you through this simple technique. It's really hard to take a good enough picture to show the shimmer that you can achieve with these pens. Try it out for yourself - you'll be amazed at the sparkly shimmer your images will have with this technique. If you try Sakura Style Watercoloring, let me know. I'd love to see your project!
Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

2 Wheeling!

Card Details: With Daddy's Help; Kindred Greetings for Him; Basic Grey Archaic Papers; SU whisper white & basic black; Black Stazon; Koh-i-noor pencils; OMS; blending stumps; Stickles; RainDots Eyelets;Nestabilities

Good morning!

Since yesterday's post was a novel, I'm going to keep today's nice and short!

A few months ago, my 7 year old daughter Ashley was able to take off her training wheels from her bicycle. Her daddy helped her learn how to ride without them one Saturday while I was at work teaching a class at Gina's store. She called me all excited telling me that she knew how to ride her bike like a big girl now - it was so sweet!

It's ordinary but extraordinary times like that, which make Gina's Kindred Spirits stamp line so perfect to me. I was able to stamp these cards thinking of my daughter and my husband reaching a milestone together. I will use this stamp in my scrapbooks with the photos of her riding her bike too - I just love the versatility of stamps!

But, take a look at the card below... because Gina's stamps are unmounted, I was able to snip off the training wheels ever so carefully and now I have a stamp that shows perfectly what they achieved together. How cool is that? Since Ashley is our youngest and we won't be using training wheels at our house anymore, I just tossed the snipped off training wheels.

Card details: With Daddy's Help; Kindred Greetings for Him; Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Black & Going Gray; Bazzil Textured; Brilliance Black Ink; Cuttlebug & embossing folder; Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks; Copic Markers; Marvy scallop circle punch

Gina's having her newest Release Party this Thursday night at her forum on Splitcoast. She and her other Illustrators Rupa, Melanie, and Asela each have an awesome set that will become available on her online store this Thursday at 10:00 pm and at her store in McFarland on Friday.

Last night, Asela's set was featured. Check out Gina's and Asela's blog for the details and links to see the beautiful cards everyone has made with Asela's set Flowers for Daisy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

CHA Highlights

CHA was very educational and inspiring for me. Gina and Melanie were awesome roommates. I had the 'hard' job of helping Gina pick out all sorts of new products to carry in her store. It was tough, but someone had to do it and I was up for the task! LOL!

It was fun walking the CHA floor together getting inspired by all the products and samples that were displayed at every turn. We both came away with ideas for a variety of new classes in the upcoming months in Gina's McFarland store.

New Friends
I really enjoyed spending time getting to know Melanie - who is as sweet and adorable as all of those super cute animals she's drawn for Gina combined! Mel is an awesome illustrator and designer and it was a big highlight of my trip to spend time with her while I was in Chicago.

It was a real pleasure to meet some of Gina's other design team members: Cammie, Joanne, Kurtis, Michelle. I've admired all of their design team work - they are really talented and such nice people.

We were also able to spend time with My Favorite Things Owner Kim van der Saden and several of her design team members. They welcomed us into their group with open arms and it was really fun going out to supper with them the first two nights we were there. They are an amazing group of talented, lively ladies who are full of love for each other. Their friendship for each other was really cool to see and to be part of.

Vendors & Designers
One of my very favorite spots to hang out at was the Ranger booth. I spent a lot of time there learning some great tips and techniques specifically with their Distress Ink line. I was able to stand at the tables of two of their amazing designers - Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi and watch masters at work doing many different techniques with their amazing products. Watching them reminded me of why I love their products so much.

Another favorite booth of mine was the Copic one, where some of their top coloring experts demonstrated step by step their coloring processes along with blending and shading tips. Mish Wooderson, Marianne Walker, and Debbie Olsen all colored and even signed one of their demonstration samples before each one of them gave me one to keep! How amazing is that?

I met Kathy Sanders at our Milwaukee Copic Certification class so I was so excited to see that she was working the Copic booth as well. She gave several awesome shading tips as well. She told me that she has taught thousands of classes at her local stamping store in Milwaukee over the past 6 years and is just now beginning to pursue more teaching opportunities for other stores. She has written an awesome tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers on Alcohol Markers. Go check out the link to see it - you'll learn a lot, I'm sure! I'm just disappointed that I forgot to ask her for a sample with an autograph... bummer!

I also met another super talented lady whose work I have admired for some time. Her name is Cathy Matthews-Scanlon. She was working the EK Success booth and was so sweet to me showing me some tips to try out with their variety of pens and markers. I learned some great ideas from her - and was so tickled to keep on running into her during CHA... okay, maybe I was stalking her, but that's just between us, okay? heehee...

I hit the jackpot at the ScorPal booth. Diana is a genius and I was so thrilled to meet her and tell her in person how much I love all of her ScorPal products. I use them all the time at home and when I'm teaching at Gina's store. She was so sweet and gave me some products to encourage me to continue to use her products! I guess she knew that I can be bought! LOL!

Val Stangle worked the ScorPal booth and I was thrilled to meet her in person. She is one of my favorite Dirty Dozen Designer Girls from Splitcoast Stampers. Her style is so classy and I go to her blog and gallery often to be inspired. She is a Rock Star stamper in my book and I was so happy that I could personally tell her how much I've admired her work over the years. We ate lunch together on the last day of CHA and she even made me a box with the ScorPal. How lucky am I?

Overall, CHA was amazing. I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people from many different companies. I found a lot of great products while I was there and can't wait until the ones Gina decided to order arrive in her store.

Some of my favorite new products:

Ranger Metallic & White Crackle Paint

EK Success new jumbo sized punches

Marvy Velvet markers

Bind-it-All

Pentel Outline Markers; Brushables

Core dinations Cardstock

Tonic Paper Cutters

ApplePie Acrylic Books

Basic Grey new Paper Lines & Board Books

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

That's just what I can remember off the top of my head... wait until I get my hands on all the catalogs to help refresh my memory!

Sorry this was so long... I've been composing my thoughts about CHA for a few days now. I didn't want to forget any of the highlights. And, Brad was giving me a hard time about not posting for a few days! LOL!

I couldn't write such a long post without including a couple of cards. I finally had a chance last week to pull out some of Gina's adorable Kindred Kids that she released last month. They are so fun to watercolor!

Card Details: Kindred Kids - At the Beach, Little Girl at Play; SU paper; Watercolor paper; India Ink; Nestabilities; Hero Arts gems; ribbon colored with copic; liquid applique; Koh-i-noor watercolors; aqua painter; buttons; fiskars handheld heart punch



Thanks for taking the time to stop by and let me talk your ears - I mean eyes off!

Jessica

Wild Animals Flip Book!

Good morning!

A few days ago, I showed a Flip book made with Stampin Up's Simply Scrapping kit. Today, I thought I'd share with you one of the same books made with DCWV patterned paper (Nana's Nursery Boy) and embellished with Gina and Melanie's animal stamps.


The book is completely finished and just waiting for photos to be placed on all the photo mats. I love giving these books out at baby gifts - all the new mom has to do is, is trim her photo to 4x5.24 and adhere them to the photo mat.

The white scallop hearts are for journaling and are only glued on half of the heart, so that you can tuck the photo behind it.

Project Details: Just so Hippy, Just so Hoppy, Hip Hop Accessories, Owl Always love you; Down on the Farm; Poultry in Motion; Spring Holidays; Just Keep Swimming; Bazzil Textured cardstocks; DCWV Nana's nursery; SU ww; ribbons; Scor Pal; Liquid Applique; Glitter; Koh-i-noor pencils; OMS; blending stumps; Peerless watercolors; Marvy giga & mega punches; paper piercer; crystal effects; Queen & Co. brads & flowers; EK success corner rounder


Have a great day!

Jessica