More Riverton photos

Here are more highlights of our half-hour bus ride to Stampin' Up!'s Riverton campus. It's 89 degrees right now.

A huge banner with the convention theme.

The open atrium with lunch tables on either side.

More wood crates with brightly-colored books and other fun stuff!

This wall was covered by First Edition dsp. I love the crates and the big paper flowers.

A gorgeous holiday vignette with a handmade paper wreath.

Day 1 at Stampin' Up! Convention 2012: Check-in and Riverton tour

What a great day this has been! Kim, Barb and I had a leisurely (free) breakfast with great service, then went over to the Salt Palace Convention Center to check in and pick up our bag and convention sets. Here's a photo of the bag:

Today, we saw all but one of the rest of our group that's here. Lorraine is coming in later and then going on a tour to the Riverton campus.

I sat next to a charming demonstrator on the bus named Cecilia from the high desert of Apple Valley, CA. She and her youngest daughter do SU! classes together. It was fun meeting somebody new.

We were warmly greeted at the campus by SU! employees, who gave us a map. We started with the Idea Rooms. Look at these photos:

All set up for a party!

How would you like this to be your craft area?

Love the wall art and flowers!

Decorated rooms at Riverton with ticket punch garland

French Foliage Man Card with masked framelit frame

SPECIAL: I'm leaving for Salt Lake City today for Stampin' Up!'s annual convention, and will be hosting a special thru Sunday evening: Place an Online Order through my website (http://TheRubberRoom.stampinup.net) and you'll be eligible for a giveaway featuring approximately $25 in convention product(s) from the Memento Mall!

Now to the card of the day: This close-up photo shows the sponged "faux" frame around the stamped label framelit piece of Very Vanilla, with a sentiment from Thoughts & Prayers. You take the smaller framelit and diecut a "mask" from copy paper, then hold it over the larger card stock framelit to sponge.

Then you need the negative diecut of the smaller framelit so you can hold it in place while you stamp inside. I hope that makes sense to you!

I know we're smack dab in the middle of summer, but the colors and French Foliage stamp set say Man Card to me. And I need a Man Card for my business advisor, Carlos. I'll be seeing him Wednesday at convention and can't be empty-handed! I CASE'd a card in the July issue of our demonstrator magazine, Stampin' Success. Krista Fenton won the "demo it" category with her card.

Don't forget - my Convention Product Giveaway will end Sunday evening, so place your online order anytime between now and Sunday at 5 p.m. Thanks!

And happy stampin'!!!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner Part 2!

Well, what do you know? My card was chosen! Thanks to all of the great designers at Pals Paper Arts.

I was happy to open my inbox today and see a Congrats from Pals Paper Arts in the subject line of one email with the badge you see below.

My card was entered into PPA Color Challenge #138. If you want to see and read my original post, click here. Thanks!

A couple of wonderful days with a 10-card class thrown in

I've had the best couple of days between yesterday and today. Yesterday, I took the kids plus one to the beach. I have to show you a photo. My son thought there was a fire!

Well, the fog burned off, and we had a gorgeous view of the water, mountains, ships and freighters. It was a day well spent, digging holes for poles to support our driftwood fort and makeshift furnishings, beachcombing, walking, wading and sunbathing.

Today, I met up with my friend, Barb, and spent the day shopping at craft stores and talking. We have so much in common, especially where our families are concerned. In fact, we were talking a bit too long because Kim called to say she was waiting. We went to a  newly discovered vintage market, and boy, did we get some great things! I spent all my money on one vendor's goods. The coolest thing I bought is a wooden chair that turns into a ladder. We all found something. It was fun!

Now onto stamping. I had two clubs meet earlier this week (I'll share those projects a little later), and a 10-card class on Tuesday. Here are the cards from that class:

This card uses the Fabulous You and Sassy Salutations stamp sets with the Fancy Fan Folder. I love the In Color Dahlias. They look so cute on the toe of the shoe! Of course, the card is finished with 2-way glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

The Very Vanilla card features the Postage Due stamp set and Postage Stamp Punch. The colors are Cherry Cobbler, River Rock, Always Artichoke and Marina Mist.

This card uses the Need for Speed stamp set in Basic Black, and a stamp from Clockworks in Wild Wasabi. The sentiment is from Made for You. This card was inspired by Deb at ARTfelt Impressions.

This Whisper White card uses Floral District dsp with a corner rounder punch, and the cake and greeting from Embellished Events.

This was my favorite card. It uses the Blue Ribbon stamp set and World Spectacular dsp. The ink colors are Cherry Cobbler and Island Indigo. The stampers could use any stamp out of the Family Reunion stamp set. If it was for a female, they used rhinestones; and if it was for a male, they used brads.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend! I'll be back later this weekend with swaps and make & takes from my American Ink team gathering, which is tomorrow morning.

Happy Stampin'!

I Dig You card for neighbor's birthday

I inked up my I Dig You stamp set for a single neighbor's birthday this past weekend. He doesn't have any family in the area. It was fun - one of us picked up a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, I brought some little water balloons and paper plates, and several neighbors headed over to celebrate. We were all lousy shots with the water ballooons - and we all wished we got hit, it was that hot out!

Stamps: I Dig You;
Ink: Early Espresso, Real Red, Bashful Blue;
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Bashful Blue, Early Espresso;
Accessories: Subtles brads, sponge dauber, dimensionals.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! For the Birds card is Artist Pick!!!

I'm so happy my card was chosen as an Artist Pick for the Hand Stamped Sentiments Color Challenge #125! There will be a new challenge tomorrow here. Here's a reminder of what my card looked like:

You can read the original post here. Thanks!

Happy Stampin'!

Sassy Salutations birthday card for color, sketch challenges

I'm always in need of birthday cards, and like that this one works for a guy! I used the Stampin' Royalty Color Challenge #131 to pull it all together. There's only one more day to take part in this color challenge:

My card uses Sassy Salutations, layered with Basic Gray and Daffodil Delight. I ran the Baja Breeze banner through the Chevron embossing folder, then added a few inches of 1/4" stitched Daffodil Delight grosgrain, held in place with two mini silver brads (love those!).

The designer paper is from the Twitterpated pack. This is the first time I've used this pattern, layered on Basic Gray. I got this cute and easy sketch from Create with Connie and Mary. The sketch challenge ends Wednesday, July 11.

Stamps: Sassy Salutations (page 143);

Ink: Basic Gray pad;

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Baja Breeze, Twitterpated dsp;

Accessories: Mini silver brads, 1/4" stitched Daffodil Delight grosgrain; Chevron embossing folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, paper piercer and mat.

Fabulous You for a downline birthday greeting

This is a special card for a special lady. It's an easel card using the Scallop Square Bigz Clear Die, silver glimmer paper, and the Fabulous You stamp set, complete with a Vintage Faceted Designer Button.

I think the black, white and silver makes for an elegant card. I free-hand stamped the "Happy" and "Birthday" stamps from Memorable Moments on a 1-3/4" punched circle and was happy I hit it just right! Of course there was room for a little more "bling" too.

The sentiment from the Fabulous You set is stamped above the strip of silver glimmer paper inside, and the butterfly completes the 3-piece stamp set. Let me know what you think, okay?

I hope you enjoy your Sunday!

Stamps: Fabulous You (page 39), Memorable Moments (page 139);
Ink: Jet Black StazOn;
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Silver Glimmer;
Accessories: Scallop Square Bigz Clear Die, Big Shot, Vintage Faceted Designer Button, rhinestones, mini glue dots, Stampin' Dimensionals, 1/8" Basic Black taffeta ribbon.

Serene Silhouettes flowers for PPA color and Freshly Made sketch challenges

Serene Silhouettes is a beautiful 4-piece stamp set (page 75 of the SU! Catalog) that is perfect for so many techniques. Here, I simply used markers to ink up the flowers.

I used the Fancy Fan Folder and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder for the colored layers, with Early Espresso stitched grosgrain. I pulled the colors from the Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge 138. You have until Thursday, July 12, at 11 a.m. (PST) to upload your own creation.

I used the Freshly Made Sketches #42 for my card. You have till Monday at noon to enter this challenge. Here's a closer look.

I hope your weekend is going well! I'm trying to stay cool in our 80-degree weather. Summer has finally begun here. Thank goodness for the fan in my stamping area. It's the only thing making the upstairs bearable!

Happy Stampin'!

This card is For the Birds and for two great challenges

I've been enjoying time to put my stamps together and play along with several challenges this week. This image is from the For the Birds stamp set. It's so cute!

I used the Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge #125 for the colors. They're not ones I would normally put together, though I think they look sweet and summery! The challenge ends Monday, July 9:

I used Daffodil Delight card stock and Polka Dot Parade dsp (my favorite!), along with a 1/2-inch punched Baja Breeze circle with an Itty Bitty flower in Calypso Coral and rhinestone for the three circular images for the Try Stampin' on Tuesday Sketch Challenge #73:

The sketch challenge ends Monday. I used markers to color the main image, and added 1/4" Whisper White stitched grosgrain. I hope you have time to play along with these challenges. They're fun, and the designers' projects are lovely!

Happy Stampin'!

Blast Off with Technostamper sketch challenge

I can't resist a fun stamp set like Stampin' Up!'s Blast Off. It's got everything you need for a great space card - a rocket ship, astronaut, flames, planets, a flag, and even an alien!

I love how the countdown goes directly into the spaceship. Recognize the designer paper? It's Summer Smooches!

Here's the inside of the card, complete with alien. It's so cute!

 

I love how this card turned out! The colors are nice and bright - Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Real Red and Island Indigo - and I think any little kid would love to have it for his birthday. I used the sketch provided by Mary Jo at Technostamper. She's got a blog hop going till Sunday, so you've got a few days to create something and add it to the challenge.

Blooming with Kindness quick card, plus free table redo

Blooming with Kindness is one of those stamp sets I love because the main image is beautiful simply stamped alone in one color, and because there are so many different word stamps. I love my words!

I used this design at a 10-card class, although it was a square card on Crumb Cake card stock. I mailed that card (after all, isn't that why we make them?), so I used the extra dsp to make a couple of these on the Whisper White card stock. It's quick and easy, and uses Island Indigo ink and card stock, along a Summer Starfruit pattern in the Birds of a Feather dsp pack.

On my quest to continue shabby chic-ing (a word?) my Stampin' Studio, I picked up a free wood table a couple of weeks ago. I painted it with Martha Stewart's Sunken Pool paint, but only one coat so I didn't cover all the dents and scratches. I mean, isn't that what makes the table shabby?

Before

After

A close-up of some of the loveable knicks and scratches:

I'm going upstairs to stamp now. I've finished my chores (cleaning, dishes and laundry), and I even made my own cooking spray ala Pinterest today - it's just one part Olive Oil to five parts water in a spray bottle. Shake it well before using it. It's wonderful!

Happy Stampin'!

Fresh strawberries... on a card!

Strawberries are in season now and look even more delicious on a card! Here's a close-up showing how the Scalloped Heart of Hearts embosslit can look like a strawberry with a 5-petal flower above it. Hopefully you have your 5-petal punch already, because Stampin' Up! retired it.

My friend, Kim C., made this card for me. I think it's the cutest! I'm in love with the Polka Dot Parade dsp too.