Summer Smooches Sneak Peek

Stampin' Up! has offered our customers the opportunity to purchase sneak peek items for the first time. These are called Summer Smooches, and the paper, brads, stamp set, etc. are adorable. I had a Sneak Peek class today and these are what we made:

The above card was cased from talented designer Elizabeth Hurst. I love this card. So simple, yet adorable!

Hands down, the ladies told me their favorite item today was making the little purse. Of course, I gave each of them a little bag of chocolate to put into the purse. I think only about half the chocolate actually made it into the purse!!

I can't wait to make more items with these papers and stamp set. I LOVE them.

Casing, Hostess Gifts and New Technique

While the rest of the Demonstrators are at convention this week :(, I'm creating. I do have workshops scheduled though so that makes me happy. Also, I've had fun casing cards, making some more hostess gifts and working on learning new techniques. First, a card that I cased from Sandi MacIver. You really need to go to her blog and see her card -- it is just beautiful. I'm not sold on my card yet, I think it still needs some tweaking -- probably I just needed a more substantial second color in the butterfly. My second color is so light that I don't know if you can really see it. But I love Sandi's idea of punching the butterfly out of a stamped Medallion stamp.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Medallion, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Blush Blossom
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Punches: Butterfly Punch, Scallop Oval, Scallop Edge, Large Oval, Small Oval
Ribbon: Baby Blue 1/4" Grosgrain, Natural Hemp
Other: Big Shot, Background Texturz Plate #1 (Damask), Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, SNAIL

This next card is a result of teaching myself the technique called "Emerging Color". I actually like it better than I thought. I actually wished I had Burgundy ribbon to go on it, but I'm a new demo and still building my stock.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Great Friend, Medallion
Ink: Pretty In Pink, Creamy Caramel, Verzamark, Bravo Burgundy
Paper: Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Punch: Ticket Corner
Ribbon: Pretty In Pink Striped Grosgrain
Other: SNAIL, Clear Embossing Powder, Brayer, Heat Gun, Tissue

And finally, I've discovered that I really enjoy making little boxes. This is just my first stab at a 3 x 3 box from my favorite designer, Andrea Wolford. Again, it is just a "first stab", but its the learning process that makes this all so much fun.

Inspired by others....

I love to be inspired by other crafters, and one of my favorite designers has to be Gretchen Barron. You can see the card that I cased from her here that I have worked up for one of my upcoming workshops. I didn't have all the stamps sets that she used, so I just used what I happened to have on hand.



One of the retired sets I have recently purchased is called Butterfly of Happiness. Here are two cards that I've made with it.



I'm always trying to come up with new Hostess gifts and I found a great tutorial for this 3 x 3 box. I can't find where I put the code for it now, but I'll add it once I find it. It was very easy to do, even though for some reason the lid of my box came out way too big. I need to look at the directions again and see where I went wrong. Oh well, first time out at bat.