How to Make Sweet Little Paper Dress Cards!

Almost a week since my last post, My Stampin' up demonstrator kit came in, my sister from OR came in, my Son and Fiance from WA came in, my new living room set didn't come in but is in the town next door (tomorrow, I hope,  delivery).  My sister in CT had a great 85th birthday party for my mother and almost all of the family was there! In between, cleaning and cooking and sewing fuel pod covers,  We've had a great time!  Here is a pic of my family: my Mom, Son Roy, Megan, Son in law Brian, Wonderful Husband Steve, Me, Daughter Lissa and Son Steve.

I haven't had much time in my stamp room this week, but I did make this card for my mom

  I did a dry emboss on the background panel and use gold and then a layer of black pigment inks to give it a patina look.  The chair and chandelier were in black heat embossing, I colored the chair with Stampin' up marker.


While the kids are out with friends, The Steve's are studying and I am working on getting things together for a Stampin up workshop.  I did this about 15 years ago and a lot of things have changed, and a lot of things haven't!  One thing that has not changed is the Quality of their products.  Back in the late 90's they were a new company and new to direct marketing sales, their ideas and products have stood the test of time!  Now there are many more benefits to becoming even just a causal demonstrator/ hobby stamper!  Like 20% off everything!  Or 20%+ income if you want to make it a business!  Their website  and support is just plain phenomenal!  While I am plugging them, I am not trying to, I am just happy with the products and the business.  I don't know about you, but I get tired of making purchases and not being happy with them. One Really great thing Stampin' up has done, is change their ink pad for their beautiful dye based inks!  Personally I couldn't be happier with them.  I can for-see a glut of the old style pads on ebay! More good news is that only 6 ink  colors had to be reformulated for the new pads.  So that means you can still use your older reinkers on the new pad!   Somehow this new pad holds more ink and allows more ink to sit on the surface of your stamp, so you get a much better image with the first stamp!!  Can you imaging no more duds?? Now more coloring in an area that wasn't inked enough?

This picture doesn't do the product justice, but you can see the pad is a very smooth surfaced dense foam. the pink stamp was inked with the old ink pad and there is a big fade spot on it.  If I had stamped that on a card, I would have tossed it.  The second in the new gumball green color is from the new pad, a very light tap, x3 and the stamp was inked and the stamped image prefect.  Really makes me want to just purchase the whole lot of colors!!

Some of my new products fresh out of the box! Stampin up let you pick the items you want for your start up kit! Which of course it makes it easier to teach when you are using colors and images you love!! I am not into "cute" and if I had to demo cute all the time, well I just couldn't!

Here I am working on Door prizes and workshop gifts.  I have been stamping for 35+ years, right back to high school days where I cut my own stamps from erasers and linoleum tiles!   One thing I do know is that this is a hobby that takes a while to build up supplies, when you have lots of "stuff" then you have lots of freedom to create.  So as a demonstrator when I am teaching a workshop, I am very aware of the new stamper who wants to create and is  not sure where to begin on the creative side or where and what to start purchasing. It can be a little overwhelming, especially when a Newbie places an order, receives it and then thinks, why did I buy this?  I can't remember what she said on how do do, and since I only had 30.00 to spend, I now have a set of stamps and a punch that looked great, but I can't even make a card.  I have seen it happen so many times with friends that get caught up in the fun of a workshop.  So I offer a lot of freebies and incentives, to help especially the new stamper.  I also have a written guide on how to purchase, to get the most for your money while you are building your supplies and building your skills.   I think one thing that is really important when you are creating anything is a sense of accomplishment! When I do a workshop I really want everyone to leave feeling like they had fun and actually made something that was nice! 

Thanks for stopping by!