Thursday, July 31, 2014

Inspiration Night

Wow! Can you believe that its almost the end of summer? My youngest boy starts school tomorrow and my middle boy goes back on Monday. Its going to be so quiet around here!

I am fortunate to belong to such a wonderful group of SU! demonstrators known as the Stamp with Aloha group. Every third Monday of the month, the group gets together for Inspiration Night - we have dinner and do some make and takes together. Good fun!

This Monday was a little different...6 of the demos in our group (and our upline) were fortunate enough to attend Convention this year, so, a whole lot of sharing was going on that night! Here are some pics of some of the swaps that they came back with:
 *Click on any of the images for a larger view
Look at all of the 3D items!

I love this!


This display board are the swaps that my girlfriend signed up for: 3x3 Love Notes, 3x3 cards and Bags & Tags

Here are more of the 3x3 swaps that she participated in





I wish I took my pics of this one - someone did a sampler of the DSP from the catalog and the coordinating card stock colors...super great idea!


My girlfriend was the only one in the group who had signed up for organized swaps - all of the other demos participated in the unorganized (or general) swaps. All of us who had attended were amazed at the quality of the work - excellent work!


And, here are the projects that we did that night - two great cards and the front item is actually a matchbook scratch pad!

This was actually my first time attending this event and I know it won't be my last...it was good fun!

I hope you all enjoyed the pics - taken with my generously donated digital camera:) - and, that they inspired you to go put some ink on your stamps and have fun!

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

I Believe in This....

Find your passion and pursue it with relentless intensity. 
If it lies within your design, you will achieve it.
Mike Barwis

 There is so much to be learned from these simple words. Over the last year, I have had physical and mental setbacks that has sent me to tears so many times. And, then, one day, I woke up and refused to take it anymore - its tiring, it drains you and it does nothing for you. I am not nothing and, while I still wake up some days with pain and doubt, I refuse to let it overtake me.
The pursuit will be long and hard, but, I will not give up.

Nancy
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Monday, July 28, 2014

I Believe in This...

The greatest obstacle to your success is probably you
Frank Tyger

 It was always easier for me to believe in the reasons why anything I wanted wouldn't work - instead of finding the ways to make it happen. At my age, I refuse to accept that it can't work anymore - it can, and, it will. Accepting the challenge is the first step - are you ready for the challenge?

 Nancy
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Elegant Gratitude

Good morning!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend - ours was great! Busy and productive and great! Hubby is packing up for a day of fishing - and, taking the two younger ones with him...so, it looks like I'll have some peace and quiet today...yay!

Today, I have a "Thank You" card to share - I call it an Elegant Gratitude card because the Modern Mosaic embossing folder was used for the background and it just adds a little bit of elegance to it, I think.


By the way, this could be the last post using my phone as a camera - my lovely sister in law has given me a digital camera! Yay!

The base of the card is Early Espresso , with a Bermuda Bay layer. The Whisper White panel is embossed with the Modern Mosaic embossing folder and I used one of the stamps from the Gorgeous Grunge set in Smoky Slate prior to me adding the other pieces. The flowers are stamped in Bermuda Bay and the butterflies are stamped in Early Espresso. I also inked the edges of the flowers and the butterflies after punching them out and used dimensionals on all of the punched pieces. The sentiment is from the Four You set and stamped in Early Espresso and I balanced it out with a butterfly in Bermuda Bay. I like it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and I'll see you next time!


Items available online 24/7 at kahuila1.stampinup.net


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Sunday, July 27, 2014

Watercolor Background Technique

Good morning!

I'm sorry - this post was supposed to happen yesterday:(  A last minute appointment came up for me and that threw me off. But, here it is! This is a little picture heavy, so, let's get started...

First off, choose your colors - I used Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango. You will also need a stamping block and watercolor paper - I cut my paper down to 5 1/4 x 4 so that I could layer it on my card base or cut it down if I wanted to. You'll also need a spray bottle with water 

Starting from your lightest color of ink, take your ink pad and apply it to your block - just press it down and get a good amount of ink on it

Mist your watercolor paper with water...

And, your block with the ink, too

Then, cover your block with your paper....

And, press...

See how the watercolor paper takes the color? Isn't pretty? You can keep pressing the paper down to the block to absorb more color or you can leave it as is...it's up to you

Here is what it looks like

Normally, I use my embossing gun to dry it, but, because it's 530 am, I don't think my family would appreciate it:) so, I just used a napkin to blot at it

I should have saved the napkin for my art journal...


And, there you go...
And, after a little trimming, here's what I used it for!

There are so many color combos to try...the possibilities are endless! I wanted to do something different and found this idea on YouTube by Patty Bennet. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
All of the supplies used can be found at kahuila1.stampinup.net


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