Another birthday... another elaborate birthday invitation

Well, I can't believe it! My baby is turning 4 on Monday! 4! How did this happen? I remember her being born like it was yesterday. And with a birthday comes a party. And with a party... you guessed it, invitations! I made pretty elaborate invitations for her 2nd birthday, when I first started stamping, using the Monkey Business stamp set. Last year I made good use of my Big Shot and DSP.

And this year? I decided to make a Trifold card - my current favorite card style. I used the Sock Monkey stamp set, Tall Tales DSP (so cute for this card!), the GORGEOUS new Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, and My Digital Studio to print the invite information in Chocolate Chip Ink :) Yep, definitely made good use of all my tools. Now the only thing I would suggest is that when you're making this type of card, don't (really, don't) make the layer on the inside of the card the same size as your stamped front square (the monkey on this card). Why? Because then you have to make a huge effort to make sure it's lined up, just right. And that's easier said than done ;) So why oh why did I do this? Because there was more info on the invitation than I anticipated.

Without further ado, here are Anna's invitations to her Pyjama Waffle Party this Sunday :) And yes, it sounds like fun. But no, you're not invited ;) Sorry ;)

Sale-a-Bration and Occasions Mini 2010 are here!

Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion, Sale-a-Bration is here! Why is it such an awesome promotion? Because for every $65 in product purchased you get to choose a FREE stamp set or accessory. But even better, this year you can also choose from a selection of Idea Book & Catalog stamp sets under $20.95! That's right, more choices than ever for your Sale-a-Bration rewards!

Sale-a-Bration is also a wonderful time to join Stampin' Up! Not only do you get 15% off the Starter Kit, but you also can select any stamp set out of the Idea Book & Catalog FREE! Contact me today to find out more about joining Stampin' Up! During Sale-a-Bration it is especially easy to make sales and get new customers because of the wonderful incentives!

In addition to Sale-a-Bration, a new mini catalog and wonderful new products are available. Especially exciting are Stampin' Up!'s new clear mount stamps. Stampin' Up! has been working on offering clear mounted stamps for many years. However, the acrylic stamps just did not make a crisp enough image for their liking. So the have come up with this exciting, innovative alternative. The stamps are still made of Stampin' Up!'s high quality rubber and foam so as to not lose any crispness or quality of image. Like traditional acrylic stamps, they are temporarily mounted to clear acrylic blocks. Stampin' Up!'s stamp come with stickers to adhere to the backside of the foam to provide more accuracy during stamping. Best of all, these stamps come in cases similar to DVD cases making storage easy! Book a workshop with me today to check out these innovative new stamps!

This Mini is also chock full of great accessories including Satin Ribbon and Designer Series Paper with glitter! And did you see the new punch design? Sleek and easier to handle, this new design provides more leverage for easier punching. It also folds flat for easier storage!

Check out this card made with the new Vintage Vogue set from the Occasions Mini. I purchased this set in the Clear Mount Version (all stamp sets in the Mini are available as Clear Mount or Wood Mount) and although it took me a bit of time to get used to using the acrylic blocks (I'm not good with change and have only ever used wood mounted sets) I have grown to LOVE them! I thought that mounting and remounting would drive me nuts because I'm pretty picky about how my stamps are mounted. But since I can see through the acrylic blocks, stamping straight is a snap, no matter how they're mounted! So how do I decide whether to buy my stamps wood or clear mounted?!?!?! Decisions, decisions, lol!

The card recipe for my Vintage Vogue card is

Stamp Set: Vintage Vogue
Card Stock: Soft Suede, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Bordering Blue, Soft Suede
Accessories: Stampin' Sponges, 1/4" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon

And BTW, this card is a little sneak peak of what will be offered at my All Occasions Cards Stamp-a-Stack - book one with me for you and your friends today! I'll also be offering some workshops at my home - Stay tuned!

That's it for today... hope you enjoyed looking at the new products and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

The delinquent blogger... a late Christmas Card...

Well Happy New Year! It's January 4th and of course I didn't get around to posting my second Stamper's Group card 'til now :p Christmas was busy busy busy and I didn't get all that much time on the computer! But I'm back. Tomorrow we're starting Sale-a-Bration 2010 and a whole new AWESOME Mini Catalog but 'til then I'll post our second group card!

We did emboss resist and layered brayer techniques. We also used my very special "Happy Christmas, Mate!" stamp set which my sister in law sent me from Australia. It's a Stampin' Up! set, but only available over there. I fell in love with it when I looked through their cattie and luckily I have an Aussie connection ;)

For my Surfin' Santa card, we embossed in white on Whisper White cardstock. Then we brayered over him in four colors: Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue. To do the layers, we used a mask which was simply paper torn into a wavy pattern. We then brayered the light colors in layers and layered over top of the lighter color in darker coordinating color. For more information on layered brayering, see Michelle Zindorf's Blog, she's the brayer queen! I won't even attempt to explain it since she can do a much better job of it ;)

The card recipe for this card is:

Stamp Set: Happy Christmas, Mate!
Card Stock: Kraft, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquose, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, White Taffeta Ribbon, Horizontal Slot Punch

I'll be back tomorrow (promise!) with info on our new Occasions Mini Catalog and Sale-a-Bration.

Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!