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Robin Messenheimer, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

Pahoa

New Valentine Designs with New Products!

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Aloha, all!

I see that, overnight and with much surprise, some errant blog posts have magically appeared!  If you’re seeing double, it’s not your fault!  Computer programs have a way of providing us all with some excitement in our lives, whether we like it or not.  I’ll be trying to clean up a bit when I have some free time in the next few days. 

But now for the real reason I’m putting fingers to keyboard this evening!  I’ve just finished a couple of Valentine cards made using brand new products in Stampin’ Up!’s newest catalog, the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  And I can hardly wait for my next shipment of these products to appear on my doorstep – which will be tomorrow!  Hooray!

My absolute favorite of all the new stuff?  Oh, man, I’m having trouble with that.  Well, let’s say that, for today, my absolute favorite is the fabulous new Designer Series Specialty Paper, Sending Love.  IT’S GOT GLITTER!  Oh, my, to have this sparkling all over the place!  Each sheet of paper in this set has a side with glitter and a side without.  Guess which side is my favorite?

The cards that I’m showing off today and tomorrow are both for a "Stamp a Stack" class.  Cards for this class have to be easy to make because we’re going to make 5 of each in a short period of time.  So no complicated folds or layering or embellishment.  But they have to be Stampin’ Up! classy nonetheless!

Today’s card not only uses the new papers from the Occasions Mini, but it also uses one of the newest stamp sets, Well Scripted and a brand new Stampin’ Up! Embosslits Die, Heart of Hearts.  I keep rubbing my finger over the wonderful texture of the embossed heart.  The colors in this card are Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip.  Gotta have Chocolate when you have Valentine’s Day!

I’m going to include the measurements for all the pieces in this card in my next Newsletter, which is the first in a series of 4 newsletters that will feature Valentine Cards and instructions for making them.  There will be two cards featured in each newsletter.  Just click on "Sign Up for my Free E-Mail Newsletter!" at the top of the column to the right and you’ll get those instructions, too!

More new products to show off tomorrow!

 

It’s Saturday and Another Challenge Card

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Aloha, all!

You know, stamping sketch challenges really do force me to do things differently than I have been doing in the past.  They also expose to me some of my shortcomings as a stamper and designer.  That’s a good thing because now I’m spending more time focusing on my skills, and less time doing the same-old-same-old.  I think that I already do challenge my customers and students a bit; but now I have someone to challenge me!

Today it took me quite awhile to get the focal point of this card stamped even to this point, which still leaves a bit of clarity to be desired.  But this week, I’m going to use some of my solid stamps and really work at getting better coverage on them.  One thing that I found is that my Perfect Plum stamp pad was badly in need of reinking.  Bad news was that my reinker has been sitting around so long that it’s kind of gunky.  But I think I finally have a relatively juicy stamp pad again.  I’m going to have to because I really do like this year’s Halloween Designer Series Paper (DSP), Cast A Spell, which has Perfect Plum as one of its colors.  A few years back, there was a set of paper called, "Halloween Night," in which the color scheme was similar, though I can’t remember if the purple color was Perfect Plum or Vintage Violet.  But Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Basic Black – in this year’s DSP – were part of the old DSP also.  I remember making lots and lots of Halloween cards that year, and I’m thinking the same will happen this year.  Love the color combo!

OK–on to this card, and yet another sneak peek at the soon-to-be-published 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog!  There is a stamp set in the catalog called Sweet Centers, and it’s made for the main stamped images to have a hole punched with the 1-3/4" Circle Punch and a treat cup to be inserted.  It is SOOO cool!  While Stampin’ Up! is selling padded envelopes to use to put these in the mail, I’m thinking that I’ll be using these for local parties and give-aways.  I have two groups who will love to have these as treats at their meetings in October!

Oh, and the challenge.  This is the Stamping 411 Operators’ Challenge for this Saturday (sketch at the right).  If you’re interested in working on your skills or just having a fun challenge to get your creative juices flowing, you should stop over there!  And if you’re thinking that you’d like to have some supplies to make any of the cards you see there, just let me know and I’ll help you order them!

Another Peek at Christmas Cocoa

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Aloha, all!

After I posted yesterday, I went looking for another challenge card that I’d made last week, but hadn’t posted here.  Darned if I hadn’t used the same Designer Series Paper – Christmas Cocoa Specialty – that I used in yesterday’s challenge card.  This particular challenge was one that I did for the group, SUDSOL, during one of their online Chat & Challenge sessions.  The sessions are a lot of fun.  The host of the C&C (as they’re called) welcomes everyone and posts a challenge sketch or picture and then those of us out here in Internetland go try to come up with our own design to meet the challenge.

In yesterday’s card, I featured one of the sheets with snowflakes on it.  This card uses the flocked paper that’s part of the set (the white on red on the bottom strip) and papers that coordinate with it.  To set it off, I stamped an ornament from a set that you’ll be able to buy from the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog, beginning September 1st.  The set is Delightful Decorations, and there is a PUNCH TO MATCH!!!  The punch is the Ornament Punch, and you’ll be able to buy it in September also.  (And lest you think it has limited use, in the next week or two I’ll be demonstrating some other things that fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators have been doing with it, and none of it Christmas related!)  Oh, and I popped the ornament up a bit with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Don’t have your Holiday Mini Catalog yet?  Give me a call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll get one right out to you!

Are you an SU Demo who might like to join a great online group?  Click on the blinking picture to the right and get a free two-week trial with Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing OnLine (SUDSOL).

Morgan Dances

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My first posts on my new blog will focus on scrapbook pages that I have made for our grandchildren.  Morgan has not yet been to visit us on the Big Island of Hawaii–and given her rapidly growing brood of siblings, may not be visiting for awhile.  Dear child would love to visit; however, her mother would probably lose her sanity quickly with three under the age of six traveling across the continent from east coast to west, Atlantic to Pacific (yes, really), then across the Pacific to Hawaii.  Can you say, "straight jacket"?  That would be for the mother, not the children.

Morgan, second oldest of our grandchildren, loves to SHOW OFF!  I have been learning from another Stampin’ Up! demonstrator how to use all those wonderful Stampin’ Up! punches that hang on my wall.  Now I’m ready to display some of my own creations.  And, by the way, I’d love to teach you how to use these punches to make pictures!  Once my blog is up and running completely, it will be easy to contact me to ask for a complimentary "how to" lesson.