I'm BACK!

Sorry it's been so long since you've heard from me! I just got back from a fishing trip to North Dakota (Devils Lake) and I was going crazy trying to get all my loose ends tied up before I left! That's me on the right - well obviously.....with my FAVORITE cousin....notice he's holding my fish....I don't really like to hold fish! LOL

IHAVE TO SHARE!!!! I'm soooooooooo excited - I just earned the 2008 Stampin' Up! Cruise to Bermuda!!!!!!! A HUGE thanks to all my customers!!!!! You're the BEST!

I uploaded some pictures with the intention of filling in all the info and posting them here while I was on my fishing trip. Unfortunately, the web service was horrible at the camp grounds - I kept getting kicked off the internet. It took me 3 days before I could see the retiring accessory list - almost died over that!!!!! LOL

Anyways - I'm back and I have filled in the info for one of my recent classes. I'll be uploading that very soon. And of course....I have to show you some pictures from my trip.....2 of my very good friends were with me - they are also part of my downline and we had a little fun stamping, in between fish fries, french fries and leaches - YUK! NO - I won't touch them, but my 4 year old neice will bait your hook for you!!!! LOL Here's a picture of the little leach lover:

Here are some of the fun things we made:

OH - and the Name Frames - they are sooooooo fun!

Here we are in between eating all that food!

Flip Book - Awesome Project!

I made this wonderful book for my daughers' teacher as an "end of the year" gift. HE absolutely LOVED it! He said his wife had sat down twice to look through it and his 2 little boys had gone through it several times too - I was so happy that a "man" was impressed with it - how cool is that?????

This book will be very special for Mr. B. This was the 1st year since 1954 that our school had a graduating class of 8th graders. They just added 7th & 8th grade a couple years ago. Being such a small school and having combined classrooms, Mr. B taught these 8th graders for 4 years - half of their school years. He knew each and everyone like the back of his hand. It was very emotional for many of us to see these kids graduating - OK - I was a mess!!! LOL Of the 8 - 8th graders, they will be going to 7 different schools in the area - I will really miss seeing them everyday when I drop my soon-to-be 8th grader off at school this fall.

Let's not forget.....credit for the book goes to Gloria's Impressionistic Stampers regional get-together in Wisconsin Rapids in March. This was the project that we made. Gloria Helmbrecht is my 2nd upline - THANKS SO MUCH!

The one that we made at the class used the Party Pieces Simply Scrappin Kit from the now retired catalog. I have my order in for some of the kits from the NEW catty - I'll be teaching a class on this priceless little beauty real soon!

I used non-SU paper for the cover here - but the one we made at the class only used 1/2 of the entire kit.

This is a view of the book from the bottom.

Back inside cover

Inside cover:

Inside envelopes have pictures in them.

Back of the inserts.

I was able to accompany the 7th & 8th graders on their class trip to Chicago. I took some fun photos of everyone and used those to fill the inside page inserts. I also got ahold of some extra yearbook photos of each individual student - put them on their own insert and had them write a sentiment to Mr. B.

I could have done so much more with this book - I was a little frustrated. We didn't get home from Chicago until 10:30 at night - I came home, downloaded my photos, started printing them on my printer dock and ran out of photo paper.....so I had to stop. The last day of school was the next day! I think it would have been so much better if I could have put more photos on the outside of the envelopes........I'll try another one soon and share it with you.

I do have a sample using the Just Delightful scrappin kit in a post from June on my blog......keep looking, you'll find it!

Stamp A Stack

STAMP-A-STACK!!!!!


I'm finally getting a little time to load some pictures here - sorry about the delay. These cards are from a Stamp-a-Stack at the beginning of June. Everyone had a GREAT time.


We used the Metallic Pencil Resist on the In Full Bloom card; Polished Stone on the Best of Cluck card - the base for this card is a lunch bag and we put an envelope of Chicken Noodle Soup mix inside for a wonderful "get well" idea.


This was the 1st time I've done my Stamp-A-Stack with 10 different cards - we usually do 5 different cards - 2 of each. I polled all in attendance and they like both ways.
Here we are....that's me on the left with Rachael and Cathy - valuable members of my TEAM - downline. I wouldn't be able to handle these stamping events without their help!!!

Cathy and Annette had a good time embossing this 4th of July card!

Luann, hard at work with Julie displaying her work of art!

Recipe Book Class

I taught a recipe book class on June 13th - what a blast!!!!! First of all I have to give COMPLETE credit to Jan Tink for the design and thank her for sharing it.



I'm pretty sure that everyone in attendance had a GREAT time! This book is time consuming, but not real difficult. I think it would make a fabulous gift for someone special. It could be used for a shower gift, birthday gift or a WONDERFUL gift to your grown child. I plan to fill mine up with my favorite recipes and give one to my step-son. He calls occassionally to ask how I made this and how I made that - I think he'll LOVE it!!!!! We have a lot of big parties in the summer and I absolutely LOVE making party food - these are my favorites for the book.


If you would like detailed instructions, please mail me directly (1queenmom@sbcglobal.net) by putting "Recipe Book Instructions" in the subject line and I'll pop them off to you.


For all you demonstrators - I charged $20 for this class and it included a pack of the Recollections Designer Paper, the 5"x5" Art Journal and all the embellishments. The class took about 3 hours.


TIP: I put the recipes in the book so that you could stand it up and they were facing opposite directions....hard to explain....if you had the book open laying on a table the top page would show the recipe upside down and the bottom page would show the recipe right side up.


The following pictures show exactly what we made:

Here are my stampers - hard at work!

TUTORIAL: Bouncing Brayer

A little info first.....a past SU demo taught me how to do this and I took it and ran - THANKS SO MUCH JEAN!!!!

Supplies:

Glossy White Cardstock 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Spectrum Ink Pad
Brayer with rubber attachment

Ink up the brayer in the spectrum ink pad. Start with the left side of your brayer in the middle of the Glossy White cardstock. Tap your brayer on the cardstock going around in a circle. YOU MUST keep the left side of the brayer in the middle of the cardstock.

You don't roll the brayer at all. When your ink starts getting light, turn the brayer with your fingers.

Here's the really messy part - your fingers will look like this! I recommend rubber gloves. Be very careful not to touch your cardstock - you will leave finger prints.

This is what it looks like as you keep bouncing your brayer around in a circle.

Keep bouncing your brayer around in a circle, turning the rubber attachment with your fingers and reinking as necessary until you achieve the color intensity you desire.

Turn your brayered piece of glossy cardstock over and rub your hands over the back to blot off the ink that is still wet.

I cut my piece in half to measure 2 3/4" x 4 1/4".

Stamp your image with Black StazOn or another permanent fast drying ink.

Here are the cards completed:

This is a Trading Card for an upcoming swap that I'm involved in:

Some stampers have voiced frustration with this technique....the only thing you have to do is KEEP the left side of the brayer in the middle of the cardstock as you bounce it around in a circle. Practice, practice, practice - you'll get it!!!! Have fun stamping!

Here's a sample of what your piece will look like if you don't keep the left side of the brayer in the middle of the cardstock:

Last but definately not least - here's a picture of my assistant photographer and stamping partner - isn't she adorable!!!!! Future SU Demonstrator!