A fantastic day of stamping!

On Saturday, I had an all-day meeting with my downline group... 11 of us got together and stamped for 6 full hours!! You can imagine how much fun we had! Now, I'm getting some of the projects scanned and photographed so that I can share them with you...

I thought I would start today with the make and take cards that we stamped in the morning...

This first one was Alicia's creation using the level 3 hostess set called Window Dressing. Now, I have to tell you that Alicia's sample was even cuter than mine because she added some glitter on the window sill but I didn't have time to put it on. We used Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip and Vellum card stock along with a piece of the new Ski Slope Designer Series Paper (from the Holiday Mini Catalogue). Alicia gave us a great tip for punching out the window - we used the 3/4" square punch - you have to punch it 4 times to get the whole window punched out, but it's much easier than cutting by hand.

You can tell that the Window Dressing stamp set was popular... this card was Lucie's. There were a few steps to this card... Check out the background piece - we inked the Sanded background stamp with Real Red ink, stamped it off once and then added some Garden Green ink directly on top before stamping it down onto the Whisper White card stock. The window frame is stamped on Whisper White card stock and then there's masking... the window frame is stamped on a scrap and cut out then laid on top of the good image. This allows you to stamp the snowmen on without stamping over the window frame. Then a second mask - the snowmen - is added over the good image so you can stamp the trees in behind. We used a sponge dauber with Stampin' Pastels to add colour to the sky and trees and the rest is coloured with Stampin' Write Markers.

Sonia brought these next two cards for us to stamp and I adore this one! I had no idea how much I was going to love the Inspired by Nature stamp set (page 100)... Sonia used Sponge Daubers to add the colour to the stamp - Blush Blossom, Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss. It gives the stamp such a nice, soft look - great technique to use, Sonia! The greeting comes from the level 1 hostess stamp set called Best Yet and it's punched with the Scallop Square Punch. The Designer Series Paper on this card is from the Urban Garden package. Such a beautiful card!

If I had managed to stamp the greeting straight, this card would have turned out much better! This card is simple, but it has lots of character and I'm sure it will bring a smile to many faces! We had quite a conversation about what this bear is doing - we found it funny that he is trying to look all scary yet with a big smile... hmmm! He is from the Under the Stars stamp set. The greeting comes from Fun & Fast Notes. The Designer Series Paper on this card is out of the Manchester package.

This card is from Lorraine. We used a new technique that I had never heard of... We stamped the big butterfly from Garden Whimsy with Whisper White Craft Ink onto Chocolate Chip card stock. Then we set that aside to let it dry while we finished the rest of the card. The card stock is Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip. Once the Whisper White Craft Ink was dry, we coloured on top of it with the Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write Marker... Using this technique, you can stamp a solid image onto darker card stock and then make it any colour you want. Cool!

Hope you've enjoyed seeing some new cards... Keep checking back this week because I have more fun projects to share with you!

Happy stampin'!

Bev.

(All images copyright 1990-2008 Stampin' Up!)