Make & takes...

Our American Ink group meetings are serious business - lots of stamping, chatting, swapping, eating... you get the idea. We have FUN! If you want to meet a great bunch of women and get together once a month, contact me at ericandterry@comcast.net. I'll hook you up with a starter kit (only $85 till Aug. 31) and you'll be good to go!

These are just a few of the make and takes we made at our gathering. Special thanks to: Heather (The More, The Merrier card), Sherry (Things I Love card), Pearl (Kind & Caring Thoughts card), whose cards are pictured below. Also thanks to Frankie, and Deb for their make and takes. These women volunteer to bring enough supplies for everyone to make their cards - they ROCK!

Ah Nuts! The More, The Merrier...

The More, The Merrier stamp set has something for almost every occasion. What do you need to do to get it for free? Buy $500 worth of Stampin' Up! product OR have a great 2-hour party with your friends?

If I were you, I'd opt for the latter.

This first card is Soft Suede card stock with a strip of Tall Tales designer paper, layered on Dusty Durango. A strip of Dusty Durango ribbon is adhered around the layers, then I added the knot as a separate piece.

The acorn stamp was stamped three times in Basic Brown and punched out, colored and adhered with dimensionals.

For the second card, I used the same colors, only punching out one acorn and this time layering it on a scallop circle.

I added white dots to mimic the Soft Suede ribbon above with a Uni-bal white gel pen. The layered are adhered to the Dusty Durango card with dimensionals.

The More, The Merrier pumpkin card...

If you have a party with $500 in sales, you can earn this great Level 3 hostess set, called The More, The Merrier.

With this set, you've got stamps for birthdays, Halloween, Valentine's - images and words!

I CASE'd this card from the catalog, using the big dot Texturz plate on the Only Orange card front. The pumpkins were each colored and cut out and adhered to the Old Olive layer with dimensionals.
The Old Olive layer was punched with the Spiral Punch, then layered on a strip of More Mustard on the right, with a strip of Chocolate Chip on the left. The white layer is pierced all the way around, and the card is finished with knot of Crushed Curry ribbon knotted around a clip and "a halloween hi" dangling from it with natural hemp.

Contact me and we'll set up a date for your $500+ party!

The More, The Merrier...

This first Rich Razzleberry card features a hostess Level 3 stamp set called The More, The Merrier.

This particular stamp in the set reminds me of an old stamp set Stampin' Up! used to carry called Flaky Friends. I used new In Color markers to dress up the snowmen, which were stamped in Basic Gray.

The card layers are Crushed Curry and Rich Razzleberry, with a layer of Razzleberry Lemonade too. The curry strip at the bottom was punched with the Scallop Edge Punch and each scallop pierced with the paper piercer and soft mat.

The words, "warm winter wishes" is part of the set. It was stamped in Rich Razzleberry and punched with the Word Window Punch.

The bottom card was inspired by a sample in the catalog (have you realized what a great tool the book is?)

The card is Crushed Curry with some Tall Tales designer paper at the top, a layer of Only Orange under the cupcake layer (another stamp in the hostess set) that's been punched by the scallop edge, and then a layer of Soft Suede.

The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

Window Sheet fun...

I finally had time to crack open a pack of Clearly Thanks Window Sheets, and was happy with what was inside - two window sheets with four different designs. The cost: $5.95.

When you cut the sheet into quarters, you get a piece with two dandelions, a thank-you, polka dots, and foliage.

These cards all feature new In Colors. There's Bermuda Bay card stock and polka-dotted ribbon on the first card. I stamped the sentiment on Whisper White and used the Word Window punch to punch it out, then adhered it under the window sheet with mini glue dots. I stamped the butterfly from For All You Do in Bermuda Bay ink, stamped once on scrap paper, then kissed it to a polka-dotted stamp in that same set before stamping it on Whisper White card stock, cutting it out and adhering it on top with a dimensional.

The second card is Dusty Durango. The sentiment is from For All You Do, then punched out with the Curly Label punch and layered on Soft Suede card stock (the slightly larger shape is from the Movers & Shapers die for the Big Shot). The card features Dusty Durango ink and ribbon.

The Thank-You card features flowers punched from Razzleberry Lemonade designer paper with the Boho Blossoms punch. The middles of the flowers are simply 1/8" circles punched from Bermuda Bay card stock. I used mini glue dots to hold the window sheet to the card, and used dimensionals to hold the flowers onto the window sheet.

Finally, the polka dots. I adhered the window sheet on the left side with two mini glue dots and tied a knot of Melon Mambo ribbon.

The stamped images are from the new Level 3 hostess set The More, The Merrier.

I used the large oval to punch the sentiment out of Whisper White card stock, then layered it on a Rich Razzleberry oval scallop I punched out.

The birds were colored with the new In Colors using the pads and an aqua painter (though there are markers available for purchase!).