Wacky Wednesday 12-10-08

big-shot-snowflakeWacky Wednesday- Big Shot Snowflake

Today was crazy because it was club and of course things did not go according to plan, but here is my Wacky Wednesday Project.  It’s actually really simple.  I came up with it from the circles that are folded in half when you cut out your pendent dies.  You would add them to your banners when you make them.  So I decided to try it with the snowflake die. 

  1. First you need to cut out 3 of the snowflakes with your Big Shot. 
  2. Then you have to fold them in half.  This is actually the tricky part.  I start by folding both the edges in half then I fold the centers over to meet each other and press in the center.  This leaves just a little part on each side to finish folding. 
  3. Once all off your pieces are folded you need to unfold one of them and apply glue.  I use the two way glue pen. 
  4. Next I apply half off one of the snowflakes to each side.  Then apply glue to one side of the two remaining pieces and put them together. 
  5. When you are done you should have a 3 dimensional snowflake.  You can hang a piece of silver or gold cord from them to let them hang.  I put them in my Christmas Tree and they look great.  Hope you have fun with this one.  My kids love it.

Click here to see more weekly Challenge Projects

If you really want a Big Shot you can check out my
Big Shot Lay-A-Way plan.

Technique Tuesday 12-9-08

I was trying to decide what to do today for my Technique Tuesday.  I was looking at the retired stamp list and noticed one of my favorite background stamps was on it.  So I decided to show an oldie but goody technique using my favorite background stamp before it is gone for good.  Remember if you don’t already have this great stamp you can get it for 10% off right now.  I learned this technique when I first started in Stampin’ Up! about three years ago.  I think that sometimes we need a refresh on some of the classic techniques.  It’s also a great reminder of how awesome our background stamps are.

This technique is called finger walking.  First you will need to gather your supplies.  For this card I used:
tt-smc-suppliesCanvas Background Stamp
Two Cool Dudes Stamp Set
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 sheet of Bashful Blue paper folded in half for the basic card
3 x 3 1/4 sheet of Brocade Blue paper
3 x 2 3/4 sheet of Whisper White paper
Brocade Blue Classic Stamp Pad
Bashful Blue Classic Stamp Pad
5/8″ Brocade Blue Grosgrain Ribbon
Silver Cord
Stampin’ Dimenionals
Snail Adhesive 

tt-smc-inking-backgroundFirst you will need to ink your background stamp.  I’ve found the best way is to  put the background stamp flat on the table and apply your ink to the stamp.  I used the Brocade Blue because I wanted a darker look.  

tt-smc-finger-walkingFinger Walking- Put your paper on your background stamp with the background stamp still laying down on the table.  Gentle walk your fingers up and down the paper.  The idea is to only get some of the ink on the paper instead of all of it.  This will give it a nice random pattern.   

tt-smc-stamp-ribbonStamp your saying on the bottom center in Brocade Blue.
Tie your ribbon around the card.
Tie the silver cord around the knot in the ribbon. 

tt-smc-blue-snowman Ink your snowman with Bashful Blue and stamp it on the Whisper White cardstock.  The cardstock should be about the same size as the stamp so it make it easy to line up.  Then attach the Whisper White piece to the Brocade Blue piece using snail. 

tt-smc-blue-backPlace 4 Stampin’ Dimensionals one in each corner.  I like to use the Stampin’ Dimensionals when ever I go over ribbon because it makes it much easier to keep it smooth plus I like the dimension.

   tt-smc-finishedAttach your Snowman to your card and you are done.  Fast and simple.

Click here to see more weekly Challenge Projects

Christmas Decorations

novemberfest-christmas-treeI’ve been trying to find all of my Christmas Decorations so I could start getting ready for the Holidays.  We were suppose to move during the summer so I packed everything up thinking I wouldn’t need it. Ha Ha.  Anyway, I found a few pictures from last year and I found some of the decorations. I put on my tree at my Novemberfest booth.  I just think a tree looks so cute with hand crafted ornaments.  I’ve had fun making new ornaments this year with our Country Living set and the 2 great sets in the mini catalog.  Plus there is one in the main catalog.  The kids had so much fun making ornaments last year that I think I will do it again.  I thought I would share some of the fun pictures with you so you could be inspired this year  I would love to see your creations.  Please e-mail them to me at andersoncandice@hotmail.com.  If I use yours on my website I will send you a special surprise.  Click on this link to see more pictures.

Weekly Challenge

One of my favorite things about Patty’s blog is that she has something new almost everyday.  So I decided I wanted to challenge myself to post a new idea for you each day.  I wanted to make it a little fun so I’ve come up with some fun names for each day and hopefully a fun category.  I’m not promising that I will be great at this, but I’m going to give it a try.  I will be starting on Monday here are the fun categories and what you can expect.

Marvelous Monday- I will be starting with the Many Marvelous Markers.  I have a document with lots of ways to use our great markers so I will be giving you tips and show you some samples.

Technique Tuesday- Hopefully I will be showing you a new fun technique and sometimes some old ones that we tend to forget.

Wacky Wednesday- This will be for anything that is different and fun.

Thrifty Thursday- Stampin’ ideas for those on a  budget. 

Freewheeling Friday-  I often forget to use our great wheels when creating projects so my challenge will be to get them out and see what fun I can have.

Swapping Saturday-  Saturday’s are usually pretty busy so I will be posting some of my favorite swaps.

Stampin’ Sunday-  I usually get a few minutes alone in my Stamp room on Sunday so I hope that I will be able to show you something new each week that I have created.

Hopefullly you will like these and we will have a little fun with it.  Please feel free to leave your comments so I know what to do more of in the future.  Be watching for them starting Monday and check back everyday to see what is new.

New Samples

I’ve added new Fall samples & Club samples be sure to check them out.  I even added a few more Halloween samples.  It’s easy just click on the links below.

boo-bannerHalloween

season-of-thanksFall Samples

September '08 Club Pg 1
September

Club Pages

kindness-cardClub Cards

flying-bear-cardClub 3D

What would you do?

rb-frontOK I need a little advise.  At convention this year I was involved in a 3D group swap.  I made 30 of these recipe books.  It was my original idea and they all had my name and information on them.  The idea of the swap was to get ideas for classes to do with your customers.  Since then I know two of my up-line have had a class for this project which is fine with me.  I too have looked at offering some of the ideas I got as classes.  I’ve displayed many of them at my events, but I think I have always tried to say that they were not my ideas and that someone else made them.  Especially when I was asked about them.

 In July Stampin’ Up! started a contest for class ideas.  I’ve had so many people tell me they loved my cook book so I thought I would enter it into Stampin’ Up!’s contest.  I missed the cut off for the last one, but because it is and on going contest I figured I would just wait until the next one to enter it.  However today when I was on the Demonstrator site they announced the winners of the last contest.  They also showed other entries into the contest.  I love to look at these and was excited to get the new ideas.  I was scrolling down through the projects that were the other ideas (not the winners) and to my surprise I saw my cookbook.  I was curious so I clicked on the link to the project instructions.  The only difference between her project and mine was the front cover.  She stamped the saying directly on the red and she rounded the corners of the chef picture.  At first I thought that maybe she just saw the idea and liked it so she created one similar.  Then I started to look closer.  I found she had used the exact same colors and I realized that she hadn’t stamped the words on the pages like I had, instead she just told you to do so in the instructions.  She had just one picture with the words stamped on it which I realized was actually a picture of my book.  I decided to do a little more investigating and was able to find her demonstrator website where I found a picture of the front of my book along with a caption that said “Convention/Swap Class.”  That was when I realized she had been in the swap with me.

To say the least I felt a little hurt and frustrated.  Not that she loved my idea and wanted to use it in a class, but that she used it for a contest and was passing it off as her own.   I have often created projects inspired by other ideas, and often created projects that are the same or similar to others.  In such cases I feel I have always tried to give credit for their ideas as I have seen many other wonderful demonstrators do.  I have spent many hours coming up with my own original ideas to enter into the Stampin’ Up! contests.  I love to share my idea’s with others to help you be inspired.  I want to continue to do so without being afraid that my original projects are going to be used to win a contest.  I don’t want to be the bad guy here but I’m conflicted on what to do and how to handle the situation.  I could really use your comments and suggestions.  Please let me know how you would feel if you were me and what you would do.  Thanks, so much for you help.  Candice

You can see all the pages of the book in my samples just click here.
More comments are under this page.