Hello Fellow Stampers -
Happy Thursday!! The week is quickly coming to a close -- hard to believe really! The colder temps hit here hard overnight, and snuggling into the warm covers this morning with my snuggly Sadie Ann sounds better to me than getting up and trudging off to work. I discovered on Tuesday evening, quite to my dismay, that when I went to finally fire up the furnace for the Fall/Winter season, that my furnace is not working -- eeeeeek!!! So we're depending on space heaters around the house until the furnace repairman comes this afternoon. I'm a little worried; furnace repair (let's hope not replacement), is NOT in the budget right now!!
As you know, I took a little break last week from blogging and designing. The truth is that I am getting a little burned out. I have been blogging and designing, and working my Stampin' Up! business pretty hard now for almost two years, and the creative juices were taking hit, as was my attitude and motivation. I had a long chat with my upline last week, Ann Schach, who is also taking a sabbatical right now from her Stampin' Up! business. There are a number of things we both agreed on, including the need to prioritize better and not let this business overtake our lives. It is a little easier for her to re-group and figure out a new path forward as she is retired. My options are a little more limited at this stage in my life as I am still maintaining a "real" full-time job. Nevertheless, when I hit the Studio this past Saturday, I did feel re-invigorated and the creativity was back.
With Ann's help, I am working some changes to some of what I am doing. Some of this is behind the scenes and you will never see it. Some of this will become more apparent in the days and weeks ahead. One new addition you will most likely note already, is the addition of a "widget" to the side bar of my blog. I will now be putting out a newsletter for my customers and loyal followers. This will bring some of the latest promotions and events right to your email box, rather than you having to come check out the blog. Newsletter subscribers will have special "incentive" opportunities for placing orders. They will also get "exclusive" projects and technique ideas that will not be showcased here on the blog. But you have to sign up separately for the newsletter. Signing up for the blog does not automatically put you on the newsletter list.
The next change occurs as of today. Normally on a Thursday I put out a design for the Pals Paper Arts design challenge. As of this week, I will no longer be participating in the Pals Paper Arts design challenge. As Ann also has left the ranks of PPA, we are in agreement as to the reasons that back this decision and the direction we both want to go in. For the foreseeable future, I am now making my Thursday post all about "me" -- LOL. In other words, I'm going to design, create, CASE, whatever it is that strikes my fancy. I'm going to get back to creating for the "fun of it," not because I have to meet some deadline for some challenge or group, or under the stringent criteria (a color scheme or sketch) of a challenge design that often doesn't "sing" to me or get those creative juices flowing. I'm looking forward to just sharing with you for the sake of sharing, and creating whatever it is that speaks to me at the moment. And there is a lot out there that I would love to do. Sometimes it may even be something as simple as one of the designs from our beautiful catalogs that I just want to try my hand at; or maybe a different challenge site/sketch - there are lot of fun things going on out in internet world; or I may mix things up and do my Mojo Monday design on Thursdays and something else fun on Fridays -- you just never know! So hang on Fellow Stampers -- we're on a new adventure, and I do hope you will come with me!! 😄 I'm very excited about this change, and am looking forward to sharing with you each week.
So let's get started with today's creative fun! Today's design is inspired by a number of ideas I've been eyeing recently while browsing Pinterest and uses the really fabulous Wonderland stamp set, and some of our beautiful designer series paper (DSP) - in this particular case, the Home for Christmas DSP. I'm using some sponging techniques today as well. Let's go have some fun!! 😊
Doggone Delightful Stampin' Design Tips:
- Layerothology. This card base is cut from Very Vanilla cardstock, 4 1/4" x 11, scored at 5 1/2" (a top fold vertical card). The background layer is Gold Foil, Basic Black, and a luscious piece of designer vellum paper from the Winter Wonderland Designer Vellum Stack.
- A Vintage Silent Night. There is a fair amount of work in this focal point layer. I played with a lot of concepts here, and really love the end result. I took a piece of the Home for Christmas DSP (the music sheet from that collection), and stamped the trees from the Wonderland stamp set first in Early Espresso; then, using my stamp-a-ma-jig for proper alignment, I off-set stamped the trees again in Craft White Ink. When this part was complete, I played with sponging (using sponge daubers, quickly becoming my favorite sponging tool), and sponging in from the edges, I sponged first in Perfect Plum, then in Marina Mist, and then toward the center using Tempting Turquoise. The trick to this is using a light hand, and making sure you're not overwhelming with color, but blending them well together. I then played with Gold embossing powder just to see what results I'd get trying a couple different things. I ended up over-stamping the left-hand tree to have it stand out, and the versamarked the edges of the paper, and Gold embossed it at random for a gilded, vintage look. The effect is really elegant and gorgeous in person. When I had the effect I was happy with, I layered the piece with Basic Black and Gold Foil. I then stamped the sentiment from the stamp set in Versamark on plain Vellum, and embossed with Gold embossing powder; then layered it from the back side with Gold Metallic Thread, SNAILed it to the front of the focal layer, added an Antique Brad through all the layers, and then added it to the card front with dimensionals.
The result is a truly elegant, vintage-feel design that is easy to fall in love with. I'm not sure the pictures are doing it justice!
On the inside of the card, I layered Basic Black and Very Vanilla; then stamped the beautiful pine branch from the Wonderland stamp set in Soft Suede, stamping off once first; then overlaid it with the gorgeous sentiment from the Six Sayings host set also in Soft Suede. I adore this host set; it is a "must have!"
I hope today's design has inspired your creative juices, and that you fell in love with one of these gorgeous new products from our Holiday Occasions catalog. I have a hard time deciding what I love more -- although the elements of the entire Winter Wonderland suite is definitely at the top of my list.
I'm looking forward to sharing with you in the days and weeks to come. Stay tuned as more changes and updates are coming. As always, I'm only an email away with any questions or comments you may have - [email protected]. If you're looking for a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I'd be honored to be your choice.
Until Next Time . . .
