February Class Follow-Up and March Class Schedule

  Hey Everybody,

Thank you once again for another fun-filled and learning-filled week of classes.

I love spending time with you and learning from your creativity. You are such a creative bunch of friends. I am truly blessed.

Blessings,

Sue

 Class Follow-Up

Links to products are in bold print.

Stampin’ Up now has a blog full of great information and ideas. Here is the link.

  We have opportunities to donate cards to three different facilities

Stamping Opportunities:

●     1. Southwest General Hospital -Cards are placed on meal trays. 

* NEW-Cut down on the number of Get Well cards. 

Instead try these: you're in my thoughts,   I've been thinking about you,     I'm sending you positive thoughts, Thinking of You, Hang in there.  They still can use Baby and Holiday cards.

(No envelope is needed. Stamp something on the inside please.)

Get Well, Thinking of You, Hang in there, Baby, Holiday cards.

2. Broadview Multi-Care Facility- Cards for residents and staff to use.

(Envelopes needed and stamp something on the inside please.)

Birthday for adults and kids, Get Well, Sympathy, Thinking of you, Holiday

3.  Hillcrest Hospital Cancer Floor

Encouragement, Birthday and Sympathy.  NEW*(envelopes needed)-(cards blank inside.)

Thanks so much for your continued support of these ministries.

             Thank you to those who made cards this month. They are so grateful to you for sharing your talents and love with them.

Card 1 Pinwheel Flip-Flap Card- Video Sue Craig

Stamps-  Beautiful Butterflies-Last Chance List

Textured Notes-Last Chance List

Paper –   1 1/4" square designer series paper 4 each of two patterns

I used Square Snippets designer paper

2 white squares 2 5/8"

1 white square 3"

1 white 4" x  5 1/4"

Basic Beige 3 1/4" square

Basic Beige 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Basic Beige 1" x 5 1/2"  hinge

Ink

Memento tuxedo black

Pretty in Pink

Garden Green

Crumb Cake

 Accessories 

All in a Row Embossing Folder

2024-2026 Resin Dots retired

Card 2  Bee Valentine-Sue Craig Video

 

  Stamps Bee My Valentine

Paper  Strawberry Slush base 3 1/4" x 11" score at 5 1/2"

Made With Love Designer Series Paper  6" x 5 1/4" Score at 3" on 6" side

Designer paper 1" x 3 1/4" 

White 2 3/4" x 5" for inside

White scrap for heart

Strawberry slush scrap for heart

1/2 large doily-Stampin' Up Lovely Doilies

Ink

Daffodil Delight

Memento Tuxedo Black

Pretty in Pink

Accessories

2 1/2" circle punch 

Bee Builder Punch

Two Heart Punches-retired

Lovely Doilies

Card 3   Cookie Jar Step Card-Sue Craig Video

Stamps   Sweet Jar-on The Last Chance List

Paper  Pretty in Pink base 5 1/2" x 8" not 8 1/2"

Pretty in Pink 3" x 6" score at 3/4" and 1 3/4"

Shy Shamrock 2 3/4" x 4"

Lemon Lolly 2 1/8" x 2 3/4"

Splash of Sparkles Designer Series Paper

2 5/8" x 5"

7/8" x 5"

5/8" x 5 1/4" for inside

white 2 3/4" x 5 1/4"

Ink Crumb Cake

Early Espresso

Pretty in Pink

Accessories

1" and 1 1/4" circle punches or dies 

Stone and Vine 3D Embossing Folder 

 

Card 4  Triple Display Easel Card-Sue Craig Video

Stamps  Amber Autumn-on The Last Chance List

Fabulous Sayings-Product of the Month $5 with $75 purchase

Paper  

White base-4 1/4" x 11" score at 1" and 6 1/2"

white embossed panel 4" x 5 1/4"

white 1" x 4 1/4"

white 1 3/4" x 5 1/4"

white scrap- 2" circle

mossy meadow- 2 1/4" circle

Cute as a Bug designer series paper

top- 3/4" x 4"

inside- 3/4" x 4"

Front 1 1/2" x 5"

4" x 4 1/4" for front when closed 

 Ink 

Mossy Meadow

Accessories

2" and 2 1/4" circle punches or dies

Ladybug Picnic 3D Embossing folder- Coming in March as an Online Exclusive

Ladybug Epoxy Shapes 

 

  March Classes

Monday March 9th at 10  4 spots

Tuesday March 10th at 1  4 spots

Thursday March 12th at 10  2 spots

Friday March 13th at 7 1 spot

 

 

 

3 Challenges and a Very Busy Schedule

 Hey Everybody, 

I'm back. I've had a very busy week with 4 classes and Mia Sunshine. I also had two Charge basketball games. The Charge is our G League basketball team that feeds into our professional NBA team The Cavaliers.

 By the time I took Mia Sunshine home Saturday evening, I was exhausted. I needed Sunday to rest. LOL

I have several challenge cards today. The fun thing about these challenge cards is this first one you had to make a watercolor bokeh background. Check out the video to learn how to do this.

Our challenge was to use the Olympic Rings colors for a bokeh card. I used real red, night of navy and daffodil delight reinkers and water to color the background. Then I cut circles out of acetate and used a dauber and white ink to color in the white circles. I dipped a toilet paper tube into gold ink to make gold rings. It's hard to get a full ring without distorting the tube. I cut out the image and sentiment with dies and colored the edges with a gold opaque paint marker. I added the sentiment with dimensionals. I added the image with a couple of dimensionals on a spinner, so this little guy spins around. The first picture shows it in action. This will go on a dinner tray at a local hospital.

Keywords: JAN26VSNL

Stamps: Unity Stamps-Wee Little Courier

Paper: white, real red, basic black, watercolor paper, red glimmer paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: memento tuxedo black, sweet sorbet, gold, white

Accessories: Copic Markers, DecoColor-opaque paint marker gold, spinner, small heart punch, dimensionals, real red, daffodil delight, night of navy reinkers, circle dies and acetate, deckled circle dies

Techniques: bokeh technique, coloring

This is for two challenges, Teapot Tuesday and today's sketch challenge. The Tuesday Teapot challenge had us using wood. The sketch challenge used a circle for the image, I switched it to being another arch instead.

Here is the sketch for the challenge.

I did direct to paper for the doorway, pulling 4 different inks across crumb cake card stock. I colored the bunny and fussy cut him. I added a dimensional behind his head so it would stick out. I stamped the sentiment on more of the inked card stock then cut the key tag in half and added dimensionals behind it. I added a crumb cake card base that was embossed as well. This will go to Marsha and Stan. I will put an encouraging Bible Verse inside.

Keywords: MMTPT915 SC1100

Stamps: Unity Stamps-Windowsill Woodlands

Paper: white, crumb cake, SU-Celebratory Sips designer series paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: soft suede, early espresso, copper clay, pecan pie, crumb cake

Accessories: Jillian Vance-Stitch Dot Arched Backgrop Dies, SU Pinewood Planks 3D embossing folder, scissors, Copic Markers, dimensionals, SU-Key Tag punch

Techniques: dry embossing, coloring, direct to paper, die cutting

Our challenge was to use blue, black and brown. I stamped my owl in Memento tuxedo black ink and colored it with Copic Markers. I fussy cut it to fit inside the tree. I die cut two circles together to make a ring to make it look like the owl was looking out of a tree. I colored the circle behind the owl. The sky was colored with Copic markers then I added stars with a white gel pen. 

 Did you know that the Gelly Roll gel pens are numbered?  The larger the number the greater the flow and coverage. I used a 10 on this background. 08 works like this also. Now I know why my 05 pen doesn't seem to flow like these others. It's not made to do that. It's a fine point pen and made for writing not coloring or marking on things like this background. Now you don't have to get frustrated with your white pens. You just need to get an 08 or 10.

 I stamped the sentiment and used a 1 1/2" circle punch to cut it out. It was added with a dimensional. I added a strip of black to the designer paper, then added the image panel. This will go on a dinner tray at a local hospital.

Keywords: ABC24B2 owl

Stamps: Unity Stamps-Windowsill Woodlands

Paper: white, crumb cake, basic black, SU-woodgrain dsp

Paper Size: A2

Ink: memento tuxedo black, early espresso

Accessories: white gel pen, Copic Markers, SU-deckled circle dies

Techniques: coloring, die cutting

Well, I hope you got some great information from this post today. I am still trying to catch up. I never got my Valentine's mailed. I also have to finish typing up my after class information for my classes. I also have to finish uploading my YouTube Videos. Whew, It doesn't end.

An acquaintance told me, "Yea, it doesn't end until it does."  LOL   My Grandfather had a lot of heartache in his life and medical issues like arthritis. He lost his wife and two sons before he died. He'd tell me, "It's tough to get old. You don't want to get old."  I'd laugh and say, "Yea, but what's the alternative? Not very attractive to me!"

He was a lot of fun. I had some wonderful times with him as an adult and as a kid. He loved little kids, especially his great-grandchildren.  We'd take him to McDonalds on Sundays with our toddler and 4 year old.  He'd laugh and feed 'the babies' french fries, which he'd call potatoes.

Good times and sweet memories for sure.

That's it for today.

Blessings to you,

Sue 

Studio Day 6

 Hey Everybody,

We're back to the studio today. We've finished looking at all of the drawers now we'll check out the cabinets above my desk and work spaces.

This cabinet is at the end right above my embossing machine and embossing folders. I store extra plates for my machine, my Sidekick, which is a mini die cutting machine. It will emboss small items also. I got this years ago and had it before Stampin' Up came out with their little machine.

The thing I like about this machine is that it has suction on the bottom. You flip a handle and it sticks to your table and doesn't move when you die cut. The Stampin' Up machine tends to move.

I also store my envelopes here. Each month with classes I got through about 100 envelopes, so I try to keep plenty on hand. I also supply two of the Card Ministries with an envelope with each card.

This next cabinet is right behind where I work so I put my extra cardstock there. I use a whole lot of white cardstock, and I have three different thicknesses. I have 65# for the inside layer of cards. 80# is for card bases that have extra layers on the front and inside. I also have 110# for card bases if there aren't many layers.  110# cardstock is thicker and heavier than the other two weights of paper I use.

The next cupboard has pouncing tools for stenciling and stamping if I want to use them. They come in 10-12 colors. I also have Stampin' Up retired embellishments as well as current ones. On the far right bottom shelf, I have embellishments that aren't Stampin' Up.  The center container has Stampin' Up embellishments. On the left, at the bottom is a tray that has cards that need to be finished. This is the last cabinet in the row behind me.

This cabinet is to the right of where I sit. It holds these small notebooks which hold my dies, dies/stamp and the two notebooks on the right hold my stencils. I like having them in these so I can protect them and flip through to see what I want to work with.

The center blue tray has things that need to be mailed or sorted for Card Ministries.

The center cabinet next to me is where I store my tape, stapler, paints, larger brushes and my Gelli plate are on the top shelf.  The bottom shelf has a white container with a drawer where I store my reinkers. I pull it out and place it on my desk and open the drawer and pull out the ink I need. Next to that are my watercolor pencils, my colored pencils and my watercolors.

The last cabinet is farthest away from me and I store items that need to be sorted . The empty shelves hold the supplies I use for classes. This week I have classes so all of the supplies are on my table and not in the cabinet.

Well, that's the upper cabinets. I will show you what I store on my counter tops after classes are finished this week. Right now my counters are full of materials for all of the projects we're making in class.

If you have suggestions about how you would store some items, let me know. Or, if you want to share how you store things, it might work for me as well.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you come back and visit again soon.

Blessings,

Sue

Virtual Stamping Challenges

 Last weekend, Splitcoaststampers had two days of challenges. I just love when they do this. It enables me to 'see what I'm made of", so to speak.  They give you a challenge and you have an hour to make the card. I love the challenge of getting an idea of what to make then seeing what you have in your papers, stamps and inks that you can pull together.

I've uploaded four of my cards and what the challenge was for each card. See what you think and if you think you'd like to make something on your own.

Our challenge was to use these colors on a card.

The image was stamped with memento tuxedo black ink and colored with Copic Markers. I stamped snowflakes on the scarf and hat. I added white flock to the tassel of the hat. I fussy cut the image so you could see the background paper. I added the snowflake and snowman with dimensionals. I stamped the greeting in night of navy ink.

Our challenge was to make a card that moved. I followed the video by Tammi White found here. https://stampwithtami.com/blog/2024/...lebration-kit/
I've made this a few times, so it gets easier and goes along more quickly. After getting the pop up mechanism done, I put the front together and did all of the stamping in mossy meadow ink.

Our challenge was to use flags on our card. I stamped the mice and colored them with Copic Markers. I used watercolor pencils to color the ground and shadows. I stamped my greeting on white cardstock then cut them into flags and added them to the paintbrushes with a dimensional. This will go to a friend who hurt her back.

Our challenge was to make something warm to drink. I chose to stamp this cutie who is getting a warm drink himself. I stamped in memento tuxedo black ink and colored with Copic Markers. I die cut the rectangle with textured notes dies. I punched out the hearts from the red glimmer paper. They were added with dimensionals. I traced some of the snowflakes with the white gel pen. I added Wink of Stella to the snowman and the snow beneath him. I cut the sentiment apart and added it to the heart. Lastly, I added gold stickles to the snow falling around the snowman. This will go on a dinner tray at a local hospital.

Sometimes the hardest thing in stamping is coming up with WHAT to stamp? By doing these challenges you are given lots of different ideas of what to put into your cards and you go through your stamps and papers more often so you remember more of what you have and what you can use for your cards.

Well, thanks for stopping by today.

I'm beat, sweet Mia Sunshine was with me all day today.

Blessings,

Sue

Day 5 At The Studio

 Hey Everybody,

We're going to continue our journey through my studio again today. These two drawers sit right behind where I work. I wanted it that way when I set up the studio because these drawers hold my card stock.

I wanted these kind of drawers because I have more room horizontally and it is easier to access the paper when it's stored this way than in a typical file cabinet. I have hanging folders to hold my paper. I put scraps of Stampin' Up cardstock right behind the full sheets so they are easily accessible. I started with my white, black and beige cardstock, then alphabetized my colors. Blue, Brown, Gray. Then I added my specialty papers such as acetate, copper, gold and silver metallic paper as well as masking paper, vellum and watercolor paper.

This drawer has file space to the left side and there is where I have stored my retired Stampin' Up cardstock. That way it is easy to find and use for my Card Ministry cards.

The bottom drawer begins with green and goes through yellow.  To the left of this cardstock I have labels stored and personal files.

The next two drawers are at the end of the counter. This top one has all of my embossing folders stored. I label those as well. In the front are the current Stampin' Up folders. The rest are categorized into categories such as, flowers, baby, birthday, hearts, sea, snow, etc.

On the counter above this drawer is where my Stamp, Cut and Emboss Machine is. So this is the perfect place to store these. It's quick and easy to pull out what I want and return it to where it needs to go when I'm finished.

The bottom drawer is deeper to hold all of my 12" x 12" designer series papers. They are in hanging files also and stored with the current Stampin' Up paper in the front filed alphabetically.

Then I have retired designer paper stored alphabetically so when I need paper for Card Ministries, this is the paper I go to first.

I also have 4" x 6" and 6" x 6" retired designer paper stored in another drawer.

Well, that's all of the drawers in my studio. Next, I'll show you what is on the countertops and in the upper cabinets.

Thanks for stopping by again. I hope you are getting some ideas of how I store things. You have to do what works for you in the space you have. 

I hope to see you back again soon.

Blessings,

Sue