Let's go for a visit

Coupla things to share: my box of sneak peeks from the Holiday mini catalog arrived last night. Honestly, why does UPS wait til 7 pm to bring my Stampin' Up! order? Don't they know to drop that box off first, and then all the other junk on the truck?  My Perfectly Preserved stamps and matching framelits are here and today I will be making tons of samples.

Pictured here are Sarah's samples from convention. She is demonstrating some ideas on the main stage and I grabbed some shots of the big screen, not very good, but sufficient for copying!

Now, if you're up for a visit, Meg Loven posted one of my swap cards from convention, on her blog here: http://lovenstamps.com/blog/2012/07/30/pizza-swaps-night-so-many-ideas-captured/comment-page-1/#comment-2122 just click to jump there. She has 4 or 5 cards that were stand-outs, you will enjoy them too!  And remember, you too can join us next year for the Stampin' Up! convention. Everyone is welcome! If you want to earn your way there FREE, just leave me a comment or give me a call and I'll help you make it happen.

Clustering of images

I have been playing with the "clustering" technique, and so is Stampin' Up! The designers provided this card as a Make n Take at the convention and it is a great example. We started with a sunburst in more mustard, then a bright yellow smear kind of thing, then the brownish curlique diamond with the word space open, Friend stamped in midnight muse and the little curlique as well, then the winged heart in raspberry ripple. The flag is in more mustard and it is actually layered onto the card with a staple.

Interesting, right? There is a bit of midnight muse added as a layer, but mainly it is a one layer card with the clustering done by stamping. Cool.

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Amazing

Are you watching the Olympics? These people are AMAZING!! And they all seem so nice and friendly. I saw a clip of Michael Phelps after an event (pre-olympics) trying to leave the pool, down a gauntlet of photographers, blocking him, 40 men long. I can't imagine keeping cool and being nice if that was my daily grind. Not to mention the physical demands of being an Olympic athlete!

We created this card and the Stampin' Up! convention, and I thought it was appropriate for today. It took a bit of effort to mess with all those tickets. The sample even had each one of them with a tiny hole punch and the string threaded through them. After I did the detail of punching all around the die-cut, I figured I already had enough punched holes, and I just adhered the tickets to the string with pop dots.  I'm just not that "amazing!"

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Cheer for the USA, cheery home decor

Is there anything more patriotic than the Olympics? Everyone loves their country, and every country has a moment or two to shine. Great fun.

These cheery flowers are a project we made at convention. The base is a 9 x 11" canvas. We painted with acrylic paint over DSP, then used scallop circle punches to create flowers from DSP. None of the steps was difficult, but it combines to make a striking piece of home decor. Love it!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Opening Ceremonies Today!

The nice thing about this hobby is that the "training" will never be called "grueling." I love the Olympics and I certainly respect the real work that goes into being a world class athlete. But I cannot imagine the physical demands!

This cute card will not cause any physical strain, it was super easy. I stamped an image from the Delicate Doilies stamp set, in the five Olympic colors. Then I punched the center out of each one with the 1" punch, and then used the 1-3/4" punch to create the outside circle of each ring.

Did you notice the ruffling on the ribbon? This is Stampin' Up! 1/4" stitched grosgrain, just hold the white stitching and pull it out of the black ribbon, automatic ruffling! I just taped the white stitching to the back of the card: securely! And I am LOVING the chevron trend we see everywhere in the craft world, so I used the chevron embossing folder for the base.  


Come on over on Wed Aug 1 for a stamp class with an Olympic theme. We will make this card and a couple other cuties loosely based on the Olympics.


Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen
   

Clear your schedule

You're invited. . . come see all the cool samples and projects I brought home from the Stampin' Up! convention. Thursday at 1 pm or 7 pm at my place, just comment or email me that you're coming!

This card was one of my swaps. I threw it together at the last minute, but I love it! I adore banners on cards, and I was CASEing a card in a magazine, but the blues and the white panel just look nice! A bit of bakers twine and a couple brads add texture, and the stamp set was an exclusive set for demonstrators that I received at last year's convention.

Cute, huh?

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

More good stuff

I have a couple more pictures of my group at the Stampin' Up! convention, but I thought you might want to see a card. So here is the final card from last week's class. This one features a paper flower that I have sponged to coordinate with the circle of DSP, topped with a button and a pearl. In the background is a doily I cut on the Big shot and at the base is Crumb Cake DSP. It is some gorgeous stuff, every sheet is embossed with clear images, some are flowery, some are neutral stripes or dots. It is gorgeous and textured and heavy duty.  If you haven't felt this yet, you need to come on over and try it!

Next is our group, Catherine, Shelli (the CEO and co-founder of Stampin' Up!), Mike, me and Barbara, so happy that all the work is done and we are almost ready to head home to our families!

And finally, my little group, in the main stadium, with a fun picture of us  posing for a group shot.

What a great trip!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Friends in high places

That's Mike Diehl. I know you can guess which one of us is Mike. Barbara on the left, then me, then Mr. SU, then Catherine.  Mike is a demonstrator in NY state. He is one of the elite group of male demonstrators, but he was just one of the gang while we were in Salt Lake City this week. Before he left, he had the company logo shaved into his hair, and without a doubt, was the most photographed person at convention. Well, maybe Shelli was the most photographed, but Mike's head was VERY popular.

Because we were such good buddies, we took extra care with the back of our hair, so if we got caught in any pix, we would be looking good!

Being Mike, he finagled an invite backstage. Being his entourage, we went with him. He stood and chatted with Shelli for quite a while, and I shot a few pix, so here he is telling her why he wears lime green converse shoes. Isn't she kind to give him her attention when all she wanted to do was take off those heels and head home?

Can you see the carpet? That's backstage. Yes, the details and glamour are unbelievable!

I have a goofy collection of bad pictures, but I don't want to ignore Marisa Gunn. She is a "side line" demonstrator in my group. She submitted a collection of work for consideration and is one of only 10 demonstrators chosen as Artisan Award Winners. I don't have a shot of her, but I did take a picture of her winning submissions.

She wins a cash prize, product prizes and she will get new stamps every month and her work will be featured every month on the demonstrator website. I'm telling you, it is a HUGE honor!

Aren't they great? She did an awesome job and there was some tough competition!

Every session at convention, there are "Prize Patrol" giveaways. I don't have a picture of Catherine winning, but she did. Here is a picture of Barbara winning. Nope. No pic of me. . . cause I didn't win. I'm not complaining because my haul of goodies is so ginormous!

This picture shows the stamps and some of the fabric and rhinestones, but there is so much more! DSP, ribbon, buttons, fabric. Unbelievable!

Still here? Okay, I had to give you a pic of Catherine. She can't pull herself away from Shelli. Mike is still talking about teaching 2nd grade, being a guy demonstrator, green shoes, spending 4 days with 3500 women, I don't know what all he was telling Shelli! But Catherine was mesmerized as well, and I was so nervous I was giggling like I was backstage with the Backstreet Boys. LOL

Finally, we were so tired, everything was sore but we still looked fabulous. Right? Well, our feet looked great! Barbara made both of us these cute embellishments for our flip flops and they were very popular.

Next year is the 25th anniversary for Stampin' Up!  If you think it was fun and that we got lots of goodies, just imagine next year! Mark your calendar for July 18, call me or leave a comment. You are soooo invited to join us! Really, I would love to have you come along!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Hot hot hot

We are cooking now, and this "weber grill" has very little to do with it!  But, in case you're wondering, the smoke is made with Everything Eleanor stamp set, I stamped off once so the ink is less dark. The grill is made from the Real Red Glimmer Paper, which is so awesome. I just punched a  large circle then cut it in half, used a brad to hold it together at the side. Some punches of word window, 1/2" circle and the grill is done! To create the sentiment I used the word window again, the small oval and the postage stamp punch. Easy Peasy.

Prepare yourself for Stampin' Up! Convention talk and pictures. I am back from 5 days in Salt Lake City at the home of SU. We spent 4 days at the convention center with 3500 stampin women and about 4 stampin men. There must have been a million cards swapped and just as many creative ideas generated.

Come on over and take a peek at the cards I collected and the pictures we took. Just leave me a comment or give me a call to schedule a time.

Happy Stampin'
Dee Tollaksen

We're gonna use scissors for that?

I offered this card at last week's class, and my customers were a little surprised when I told them the flower was cut, by hand, with scissors. Huh? Not the Bigshot? Not a punch? Scissors?  Yup, old school style!

A lot of people don't think they can cut. It cracks me up, I mean, we learned that in kindergarten and we've had a few years to practice. I know, just around the corner, my carpal tunnel will close down and arthritis will take over, but that wasn't an issue with these stampers. They were just so used to everything being die-cut or punched!

I love the subtle colors in this card, it is totally CASEd from a lovely blog I follow, by Renee Van Stralen. The stamp set is Raining Flowers and it is a great 2-step stampin' set. We used the bigshot to dry emboss the panel on the bottom half, then inked it directly with an ink pad. We also die cut the early espresso leaves, those are pretty small to be fussy cutting.

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Tuck it in and go!

Barbara and Catherine, look away, right now, this is the rest of the surprise.

Everyone else, look close! How cute are  these! I have this great new sewing machine, and I took a risk and bought some zippers. Zipper installation is supposed to be one of the toughest sewing challenges, but I found these to be way easier than, say, setting a sleeve or a waistband. So each of the little bags I made will have a coordinating zip pouch.

These are even lined, so no loose threads in your pennies, and it was super easy!

The fabric is so awesome, sturdy, and substantial, but not thick and cumbersome. The colors match the Stampin' Up! products perfectly and these three bags and pouches all come from one set of fabric from the Stampin' Up! catalog.

I have my bag packed and my toiletries sorted, the shoes are chosen and the swaps are done. I have my apron ready to go and my reservations confirmed. Tomorrow is the hair appointment and then I am off to Salt Lake City! Whoo hoo!

Please think seriously about how much fun this could be if you were coming too. Next year will roll around so quickly, and I would love it if you were coming along. Just drop me a line or a call and I will make it happen.

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Turn down the lights!

Is it a little bright? Too bright? Naaahhhhh. It's summertime, bright is good!

I used the Polka Dot DSP (designer series paper) on the face of this card, and layered it on top of a nice bright pink and pool party. Does anyone know the name of this new pink color? Raspberry something? IDK!

We used a simple circle punch, the triple heart punch and the triple flower punch to make our feature panel, with a rhinestone on each one. We added a bright yellow panel embossed with hearts and then a dash of ribbon in pool party ruffled ribbon.

Such a cheerful card!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Bag it up

It's crunch time, and I am so excited! It's time to pack up for the Stampin' Up! convention. We leave Wednesday for 5 days in Salt Lake City, stamping, laughing, learning and chillin' with my girlfriends. Can't wait!

Every year we bring something fun and hand made for our room mates. This year I bought myself a  new sewing machine, so I knew I had to sew my gifts.

I came across a blog post with a super cute bag, with the handles, the folded down collar and it features all three fabrics in the summer smooches fabric from Stampin' Up!

These are the main roomie gifts, so check back for the goodies I am stashing inside.

Happy stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Fabric Scrap becomes star of card

Vintage, clustering, mixed elements, altered embellishments, trendy trendy trendy!

I am trying to keep up with the current trends, and sometimes it is such a stretch for my style! I think this is a super pretty card, and it came together quickly, but it is filled with fancy pants fun!

First I took a simple crumb cake cardstock rectangle, lopped of the corners and made it into a tag. Then I used our gold shimmer paint to stamp the pretty leaves all over it. I also spritzed the shimmer paint on the paper flowers. Then I sponged some early espresso ink on the edges. I prepared the beautiful new clear button with a cluster of pearls in the center and I tied a bit of espresso ribbon through a punched hole at the top.

The star of this card is definitely the fabric flower. Don't you love how nice it matches the Stampin' Up! paper/ink colors? I love working with fabric and the SU fabric is gorgeous.  Some of the flower techniques I have seen are a bit complicated, sticky and unreliable. I found this technique to be simple and quick, but you have to be able to sew.

I used the Tasteful Trim die on the bigshot, shown here, the top element. A one inch strip of fabric, 15 inches long will make this great flower. Cut it on the bigshot, then take it to your sewing machine and sew a loose straight seam along the straight edge. You can do this by hand, but the machine is so quick!  Then gather the edge by pulling one of the threads.

You'll find the flower just creates itself. I used fabric glue to adhere the flower right onto the tag i had created, then used the fabric glue to adhere the clear button to the flower.

 I did stamp the butterfly onto the DSP, I embossed the base layer and then just piled the elements all onto an early espresso card base.

I will be swapping these at convention next week. I hope to get some awesome trades from other demonstrators!

If you are interested in making a pretty card like this, just leave me a comment1

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

What the heck . . . x 3

It is just too dang hot. Seriously. People in Chicago are not conditioned to withstand 4 days of heat over 100*!!

Around 10:30 on July 3, a skunk decided to join us in the cool house. And who can blame him? He jumped into the window well and was trying to scratch his way into the basement. Seriously. When my brave husband went out to discourage him, yes, you know it, he sprayed. So out came the shovel, and the husband won the war, but the battle was a draw.

All snug in our air conditioned rooms, we went to sleep with dreams of fireworks in our heads (and stench in our noses.) About 6 am, the cool started to dissipate. Our power went out. Maybe the varmint patrol took offense. I think a squirrel knocked out a transformer. Only 7 houses on our block were dark (and hot). But ComEd was awesome and got here quick and fixed us up before we had to resort to emergency options. It was over 100* again, so we were going to have to figure something out.

So off we go to a BBQ party. You guessed it, the fun wasn't done. When we came home there was some car shuffling to be done, getting all the cars put away for the evening, including a guest's vehicle. I noticed that the end of the driveway was all wet, but no rain seemed to have fallen. Oh no, the water main under our driveway had broken. Call the city. Really. July 4, 100*+ and we have a broken main.

The guys showed up at 1:00 am (pay attention now, it is the middle of the night) and start jack hammering our driveway! And using the crane/digger thing, dump trucks and a giant light so they could see as if it was high noon!

So, things happen in 3s and we are all done now. Skunk, power outage and water main.

How was your Independence Day?

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

This card sucks

What do you think? Does this card suck? Ha ha! LOL

I CASEd this beauty from a magazine. I am really enjoying the "clustering" technique. Here I have a stacked flower, stacked circles, a little banner with twine, a button with a rhinestone, then I made flags from DSP and toothpicks.

It is a pocket card, you might prefer a gift card in the pocket, but I think I might make some of these to swap at convention. . . and I won't be handing out gift cards!  What do you think? Good to swap at convention?

So glad I have a nice indoor hobby. 103 degrees this afternoon here in Chicagoland. Yuck.

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

"Show me the love"

Take my whole 20%.

Go ahead. It's my birthday. Stampin' Up! gives me a nice discount on product every day. But today, my birthday, you can have it too. Take the whole 20% off anything in the new catalog. As many things as you want. You must email me your order and it must be new products. I'll email you back your total due sometime tomorrow, because today is my birthday!

Come on, you have to have a wish list, right? I know I always have a few things on my wish list! "Show me the Love!" as they said over and over in Tom Cruise's classic Jerry Maguire movie. (Tom's having kind of a bad week, so I thought I'd show him some love."

Happy Stampin!
Dee Tollaksen