Gusseted Pouch video

I have been scouting the internet for inspiration for the envelope punch and the scalloped tag topper. I have found a delightful video from Lisa at lastamper!
I plan on making this tonight (or maybe tomorrow, we'll see if today was as crazy as yesterday was!) I will attempt to photograph it and share it with you so that you can make it as well!

Paper Pumpkin is offering a sale

I am so excited! Paper pumpkin is offering a sale! You can get the Paper Pumpkin for half off for your first 2 months. Go to MyPaperPumpkin.com and use promo code: HALFOFF2.




You can see all of the details herehttp://www.stampinup.com/home/blog-post/corporate-blog/2014/07/22/50-off-first-two-months

Envelope Punch Board & Scalloped Tag topper

I can not wait for tomorrow to arrive. (Technically it has, it's 2 A.M.!)  Tomorrow before the end of day, UPS is bringing my latest order from Teresita's party. Within are two treasures that I have been saving for - the envelope punch board and the scalloped tag topper.

The envelope punch board has it's own video that you can see here:
http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryID=1854

I for one, can not wait to use it to create custom pockets for my scrapbooks and one of a kind gifts. Can you imagine a perfectly sized little gift card holder? I also want to make an itty bitty envelope to hang from gift bags. That way the gift bag can be re - usable and you could even include little tags as a thoughtful idea for your gift recipient! I always re - use bags. Go green! Some of the photo ideas on Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/jlfstudio/envelope-punch-board/


Tags brings me to the other thing that excites me - the new punch that I ordered (link below)
http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=133324

I do not make my purchases willy - nilly. I am a hobby demonstrator whose saving to buy a new house, so every dollar that I have has a job to do. My dollars are invested well in this punch! I have seen photos of using the tag to create miniature gift boxes, card and box closures, book marks and of course, tags.


 I plan on having a DIY handmade Christmas gift exchange this year and this tag punch will be the star.  There is something so appealing about the scalloped shape of the punch. I know that I will be playing with these all week long!

Zoo Babies stamp set is another obsession of mine this week. I will be making all sorts of experiments with these three new additions to my collection, so peek back for tips & projects!

For those of you worried about the dimensions of envelopes, I found this that I plan on utilizing:
http://craftdoc.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2013/10/24/tutorial-stampin-up-punch-board-card-boxes/

August Dates for Stampin' Up!

Hello! Here are the Stampin' Up! events for August

1. AUG 11  6:00 PM - 9:00 PM - Card Party
2. AUG 12  9:00 AM - 11:00 AM  (RSVP! I won't wake up early if I don't know that you're coming :) )
3. AUG 18  10:00 AM - 12:00 PMWATER COLORING CLASS

Come learn how to water color! Classes show you more advanced techniques than parties.  Classes cost $5 cash per person. First class is free (so bring your friends and their class is free) Please bring your ownStampin' Up Adhesive (Snail or Glue Dots)

• AUG 26  5:00 PM - 7:00 PMHOLIDAY TECHNIQUES CLASS
  Stampin' Up Holiday Class! Make holiday cards for Christmas.
  
  Cost is $5 per person
  Please bring your own Stampinup adhesive - Glue dots or Snail
• For these events, please do not bring competing products. I'll supply you with Stampin' Up! Adhesive & products  for parties :D

Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store

Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store



Take a peek and see that next month is full of opportunity for you to come have some fun stamping with me :)  Please RSVP, I have to cut paper for each attendee.

Update on Pansy Punch

I posted a little picture and tip on how to line up the pansy punch earlier.  I've found a blog post on another site that makes it much easier to understand! Passing it along :)

http://stampwithmarti.com/2013/06/flower-shop-tips-and-tricks/

Unusual last minute request

Normally when I make a card, it takes me hours. I check the Pinterest/ stampinup resources, I measure my card stock and I cut enough for a whole party of people to make a perfectly sized and coordinated card. Yet for this party, one of my cards isn't going to be as perfect.  My friend shared a Facebook message about a boy - Danny - who has terminal cancer. All that he wants is a box of birthday cards with his name on them.

I hastily grabbed all of the pre - cut card stock that I've been amassing for one - day projects and am bringing some 'boy' themed stamp sets to the party. I don't really have any boy stamp sets besides Label Love, but I thought we could cut up Maritime paper and use that as the image part. I hope that we can make him some cute cards :D

I'm off to cut up some Designer Series paper for cards for Danny. You can get more information here
https://www.facebook.com/anne.purkeycaulfield

How to create a layered labels card

Step 1. Cut two card fronts - one in white and one in colored paper. Line up the center of the two card fronts and mark the center of the colored paper.

Step 2. Emboss the paper with fancy fan embossing folder or your favorite folder.  

Step 3. Cut the embossed card stock with the layered labels framelet, the size that will nestle over the stamped image.

Step 4. Stamp the Apothecary Art floral image in a size that will show the floral image nicely.

Step 5.  Color the flower images. I used Blender Pens to pick up ink from my ink pads, yet Stampin' write markers are a good option.

The layered card can be left plain, but I love to to add embellish the corners of the cut framelet layer.The first card has two butterflies from the Beautiful wings embossits and the bitty butterfly punch. For the second card, I cut Coastal Cabana with Pansy Punch & Blossom Punch and layered it with Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon & designer series paper and a Stampin' up pearl at the center. 

Updating the Etsy store

Don't forget that Christmas is quickly approaching. Make that Christmas card list and start dreaming of what they're going to feel when they open up a handmade card from you :)  If you don't want to make one, you can always buy one from me.  The Buy 3 get 1 free paper promotion goes on through the month, you can buy that at my Stampin' Up portal.

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

Inspiration

How do you get your inspiration to craft?

Personally, I visit Pinterest and the Stampin Connection on Stampin' Up's web site for demos. There is great inspiration there!  I hadn't planned on using Work of Art but I was struck at how appealing the shapes looked when I was packaging it up for my friend. Lo and behold, upon googling Work of Art its a very versatile stamp set. The chevron works great for guy cards and that heart is adorable! With Happy Watercolor out of the picture, those brush shapes are great for water
coloring.

Today I enjoyed a 'card crafty' morning where I brain stormed for my friend's party. I had an idea to use the Project Planner for the second time to track different ways of using the same stamp set so her friends can see many ways to use the same stamp set. Label Love & Flower Shop are the main stamp sets that I am using. I had saved Lovely as a Tree & Sweetbriar Rose images to use, but realized a Blendabilities Make & Take isn't feasible. I only have the one blendabilities set and whats more boring than watching someone else color when you want to color with those very same Blendabilities?  I think that I'll order a second set of Blendabilities when the party closes.

Here is what I experimented with today:

Convention is coming -- and the pre order for the Holiday catalog with it

Today when I was checking my favorite blogs, 'Crafting up the Coast' reminded me that Stampin' Up convention is coming up. With that is the holiday pre - order for demonstrators. I am creating Holiday cards with leftovers that I have from last annual catalog, but I will be very excited to see the new annual catalog. I want to host my first ever Christmas in July event when it does come out. I'm guessing that the catalog won't be open to customers at first, however... it may be Christmas in August. But I definitely don't want to wait as long as we did last year to start on Christmas cards :)

There are new weekly deals

This week makes it easy to decide what I want- the Gold Baker's twine! You can buy these great deals from my shop link
http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

I have the little labels punch pack so I think that I will demonstrate it at Teresita's party. I watched a delightful treat box video last night and must try and demonstrate it. I think that it shows the versatility of our paper!  I'm eying the metallic clothespins as well... the punches are the best deal.

Whats the best thing in your crafting space?

Whats the best thing in your crafting space?  For myself, I love a gift from my mom. She found it in an old Craigslist ad from a former demonstrator when I first started out in my business. I was buying direct income to direct income, not spending much of my personal money. Each little sale was such a point of pride for me. My mom found an older version stamp pad caddy. It has four sides for stamp pads and a four section holder on top.

I organize it by Incolors, Subtles, Brights and everything else (I never buy a lot of Regals or Nuetrals) and there is a special smaller section for my Versamark and Stazon. I use it almost every day and it makes things so neat and easy!

Preparing for party

One of my favorite things about being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is sharing my enthusiasm for Stamping with my friends and family. A lot of people hear what I do and say 'I'm not creative enough'. I'm not especially creative! But when I get a stamp set and a stamp pad and I start trying to duplicate a project from the catalog or from a CASE on stampinup.com's stampin connection for demonstrators, its amazing what happens. You start to tweak a project a certain way or substitute a paper or ribbon for something that you have on hand and soon, everything just comes together. You've created something that is totally perfect for someone. It is so fun!

Weekly deals

I can not wait to buy the Natural 7/8'' cotton ribbon, Soft sky classic stampin' pad and vintage faceted buttons! I love to tie twine and ribbons with the buttons. Soft sky looks like it will pair very well with most of my colors. I've heard good things about stamping on the ribbon and want to try to dye it to match projects.

New Catalog = new listings at the shop!

I have been very excited to play with the new offerings in the Annual Stampin' Up Catalog. My first 'WOW' moment is the details that you can get from Blendabilities.

Do remember that you need memento ink pads for using the Blendabilities.  One spectacular promotion that Stampin' Up is offering right now is the buy 3 designer series paper packs, get one free! That's a $10.95 free gift. Here is a picture of my favorite card using the new Lullaby Designer Series paper

http://s.tamp.in/buy-3-dsp-get-1-free

You can order from me at any time at  http://annecaulfield.stampinup.net

Tip of the day - when I work on my cards, I like to have a lot of time to craft and I don't want to spend time doing the same thing twice. I save time on creating embellishments like punched paper art by storing them in a muffin tin. I then tuck the tin out of the way under my crafting table and its all ready for me the next time that I want to stamp. Here is some Hearts a flutter framelets, Pansy Punch & Flower shop, Beautiful Wings embossits, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Label Love & Artisan Punch and Blossom Punch.