Last Chance Strength and Hope

 The last chance to pick up the Strength and Hope Stamp set or the Strength and Hope Digital Set which comes with the stamp images and some gorgeous DSP for My Digital Studio is fast approaching!

Here are some cards I made showcasing just how pretty and versatile that this stamp set is ... one of my all time favorites and for such an awesome cause!

Place an order for this Stamp Set before the end of the month and receive a special additional small gift of thanks from me for your support!

Happy Stampin'

Happy Canada Day weekend

During July, you can join the Stampin' Up! family as a demonstrator for only $119! This limited time Starter Kit—valued at $205—comes with the following high-quality products:

• Easy Events Clear-Mount Set*
• Pennant Parade Wood-Mount Set*
• Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad
• Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad
• Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad
• Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
• Brights 8-1/2" x 11" Assorted Card Stock
• Just Add Cake Designer Series Paper*
• Chocolate Chip 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon*
• Note Cards (20)
• Clear-Mount Block C
• Blender Pen (1)
• SNAIL Adhesive
• Business supplies

*Brand new to the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalogue!

Plus, join in July and get a FREE Christmas Keepsake project kit—a $50 value! Imagine an afternoon spent chatting with friends while creating something beautiful—isn't that what Stampin' Up! is all about? But act now because this special kit is only available as part of this limited-time offer.

Join Stampin' Up! in July and get brand-new products, including an exclusive project kit—all for just $119!

This is a gorgeous card design from my upline Liz featuring the Strength and Hope campaign stamp set - $2 from each set sold during the summer mini goes towards fighting Breast Cancer!

We made this at a team meeting night in May ... another great reason to join Stampin' Up this month - getting together with other demos to discuss business strategies, learn new techniques and play with product you might not own yet! I love my upline mentor and all the support that she offers me and would love to be able to continue to build my team so that I too can pay it forward to others!

May Swap Cards

This is one of the cards from our May Swap this month ... love the way the swirl from the Strength and Hope can be used as a border - I added a few more pearls and some paper piercing to the design Sheri has shared - just to give it a little bit of a unique me flare!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Strength and Hope CASE

I saw this flower daffodil crop up on a couple samples out there in the Stampin' Connection site and thought it was too cute ... my apologies for not having a link to site did not think to go and bookmark the blogs of the demos who shared the flower tutorial :(

This week I decided to try it with the Strength and Hope card for the Color Throwdown challenge last week of the Navy and White with another 'color' but did not submit this one case I ended up with two other colors cause the daffodil looked silly without some 2 step Bird punch leaves in the Old Olive :)

This is another one of those 'sparkly' cards that a photo does just not do justice! I embossed white on white with the words from the Strength and Hope set and than used the Iridescent Ice over the Night of Navy butterfly with some pearls as accents!


This is a perfect card for this weeks Shabby Tea Room challenge as well .... make something with butterflies ... with the new Strength and Hope Campaign set I think I could be entering everyday this week cause I am so loving this set!

Clean & Simple Color Throwdown

Loved this fun layout from over at the Clean & Simple Challenge 137 ... been working really hard on keeping my class cards more simple so that they are not three hours long so these challenges are really helpful ...

Was also inspired by the Color Throwdown #138 ... Navy, White and any color so I chose Melon Mambo!And than with those inspirations I came up with the following Strength and Hope Campaign card featuring the Ribbon Border and a Vintage Flower Adornment ... this turned out way more sparkly in real life!

Here is an attempt to catch the sparkle on the butterflies ... I stamped them with Melon Mambo and sponged with Night of Navy and than covered with Versamark and sprinkled with Iridescent Ice emboss powder and heated - GORGEOUS and of course some Rhinestone gems to finish off the bling!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and thank you to everyone who leaves such warm comments - they make my day!

Fabulous Sneak Peeks

One of the things I LOVE about being a Stampin' Up Demo is the sneak peek perks ... among numerous others ;) This month were were able to order a sneak peek of a few of the stamp set that will be in the Summer mini come May 1st!

Here is a card sample I made combining the Easter Blooms from the current mini with the sneak peek MDS Strength and Hope digital download Designer Series Papers and the Four Frames stamp set which coordinates perfectly with our Decorative Label punch to make some truly gorgeous sentiments!

Here is a close up of one of the four stamp images in the set ... which I have paired with the Fabulous Phrases stamp to create a Best wishes sentiment and added some 3D Rosettes for more pop factor!

Playing with the Brayer

I have been challenged to get reacquainted with my brayer from a friend who just bought a brayer and is looking for tips in an upcoming technique class ... so this is a card that I made which used the brayer with the Texturz Plates through the Big Shot to create the pretty Plum paper in the back layer here.

Effect is created using Very Vanilla cardstock and the texturz plate inked up with the brayer filled with Perfect Plum -helps togives a nice 'vintage feel' to this card seeing it peek out from back there.

Also wanted to showcase the upcoming Strength and Hope set from the Summer mini which will be available as of May 1st cause it is just my FAVORITE out of the mini ... although there are a few others in there that customers are going to be loving I am sure!

I used all 4 of the stamp sets in this layout as inspired by a card I saw over on Splitcoast Stampers here ... love the 'word stamp' repeatedly stamped to make the background paper and well the H Hope stamp fits perfectly in the 1 1/4 square punch layered with the 1 3/8 punch over top of the 'swirl' stamp and well this little butterfly is just gorgeous - it almost looks like it is jumping off the card.

Also got a chance to incorporate some of the Chantilly Lace which paired well here I think - over all just LOVED all the elements in this card!

Stength & Hope Hybrid Mash Up

Playing along to the Friday Mashup Challenge again this week! Which is awesome cause I was looking for a nice clean and simple card for an upcoming Stamp a Stack and this layout was perfect!

I am so loving the upcoming new set Strength and Hope that will be in the new Summer Mini catalog ... both the traditional and the My Digital Studio download - which has many awesome patterns of DSP to coordinate with the set - which is what I have used here in this card to create my 'strip'.

Turns out that the mind is an amazing thing! Creating this card over the weekend with the layout above I must have subconsciously CASED it from over on Splitcoaststampers ... such a pretty card it must have been in the back of my mind from having been over there looking for inspiration from for something else - so thank you to the original inspirer!

I added a different sentiment, changed the placement of the butterfly and of course added some 'bling' to mine with some half back pearls - such a simple card but so elegant at the same time!

Hope the ladies at Saturdays Stamp a Stack enjoy this one as much as I do - and if you are looking for something fun to do this weekend I still have a couple of spots left for the Stamp a Stack so come on out and enjoy some great company, hilarious conversation and some awesome cards for your collection!

Double sided Laylout

This double sided layout ties together the challenge from over on My Digital Studio as well as Sketchy Thursdays 3.03 sketch challenge.

The right side page was inspired by this layout from Alesha Walls on My Digital Studio ... just loved the rolling hills look!

Here is my creation using her layout template ... I used quite the potpourri of products to create this including the new DSP from the Strength and Hope campaign digital kit, floral stamps from Printed Petals, Petal Pizazz, So Happy for You and Just Believe stamp sets and some Gold Glimmer brads to accent the white flowers.

The left hand side was a mirror of the right hand side with the photo layout and journaling inspired from the Sketchy Thursday 3.03 this week.

I felt the the photos spoke for themselves with this layout and as a result chose to borrow the sentiment stamp from my new Strength and Hope Campaign digital download as my journal words for this layout because they are all words that come to mind when I think of my little nephew here!

Sneak Peek ...

This is a scrap page made with the sneak peek digital download ' Strength and Hope' which I was able to pre-purchase yesterday as a Demonstrator!

Starting May 1st the digital download kit as well as the traditional Stamp set will be available to customers during the Summer Mini ... during the Strength and Hope Campaign Stampin' Up will donate $2 from the sale of every Digital Kit downloaded as well as every Stamp set sold to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!

I love the designer series paper that comes with this digital kit - I only used a fraction of the 12 sheets you get. The stamp set includes the Butterfly, the H hope, the swirl accent as well as a script set that is hard to see in the paper here but repeats words 'courage hope believe unity survivor caring together love kindness support strength blessed thank you.'

This kit seemed perfect to scrap the photo that appeared in the paper this past Fall of my Run for the Cure team leader Linz who organized our Bold and Boobiful Run team for the Run here in London last October :)