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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

STAMPIN' UP - Place an order for a Surprise

Yes, I have FINALLY made the decision after many many ponderings - to become a Stampin' Up Demonstrator. I LOVE their products - especially their color-coordinated cardstock and inks. Their markers last longer than any I have used, in my honest opinion.
If you are interested in placing an order - you can do that HERE. When you place your order with me, I will send you a surprise.(A token of my appreciation for your support of my new business)
Now, that doesn't mean I will stop coloring with prismacolors - I might even teach a non-stampin' up workshop using the prismas someday - but I will probably order the pencils/watercolor crayons from SU so that I can share my love of coloring at a workshop.
I am still receiving orders of items I have ordered over the last week - nestibilities and Tim Holtz texture plates from Flowers to Flourishes, my last order to my favorite SU Demo ever - she is now my upline!! My first Demo order to SU, and SUGAR NELLIES!! I just got an order yesterday and am waiting for the order that I won - thinking I might need to revisit that one as she might not have an address to send to! :)
So, what are YOU doing for the 4th of July? I am visiting family - and will take colored pencils along - SO portable, as well as some things to make some patriotic cards to send to OWH.Remember, as you CELEBRATE our INDEPENDENCE, remember who is fighting to keep us Free!!

Have a lovely rest of your day and thanks for stopping by the spa!

~Paula~

Sunday, June 27, 2010

I WON!!

Yep, that is right!! I was chosen by random.org on the Sugar Nellie site as the winner for this past week. That means that I get to choose THREE Sugar Nellies to be sent to me!! I am so excited about that. I just placed an order for four earlier this week - they have already been 'dispatched' from Scotland! Now, I have the pleasure of ordering more!!
Oh, and while I am speaking of excitement - I have FINALLY taken the plunge! After ordering from Stampin' Up for YEARS - and I have the VERY best Demo ever - I decided to JOIN her team!!! I signed up to be a demo on Friday evening!
Now, I have a little incentive - for those of you that are following me - if you place a Stampin' Up order of $25 or more with me by the end of July I will throw a surprise in with your order. I don't have a site up yet so send me an email with the items you would like to order. If you want to join my Stampin 10 group please leave me a comment with your email and I will get back to you with all the pertinent info.

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments

~Paula~

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I LOVE Sugar Nellies!!

Why? Well, for one - the images are QUITE adorable, and for two - I get to color - using my prismacolor pencils. I have discovered that I am a prisma girl!! AND, I like all things feminine - so the sketch challenge this week over at the Sugar Bowl was perfect.We were to use this sketch and make it girly and feminine. The only other requirement was to use a Sugar Nellie image. Well, I don't have alot - a few digitals, a couple rubber stamps and a few images that were sent to me through the Wishrak over at Splitcoast Stampers. I have placed another order for the sweet images, so you all don't get bored with the same images over and over. Ok, so I don't get bored using the same image over and over!! :)
For my card I used this sweet image cut with my new Label 10 Nestibilities dies, layered. My bg card stock is Vintage Violet and I used SU Design Paper. I added a lavendar sheer ribbon and these wonderful paper flowers I bought at Michael's. The image is colored with prisma color pencils, of course. Now there are always prizes for these challenges and the prize this week is 6 Sugar Nellie stamps of your choice and a set of Nestibilities - but you can't win if you don't enter - so I am heading over there right now to enter this lovely card in the challenge.
Thanks for stopping by - I hope I have inspired you - but mostly - I hope you have found rest and rejuvenation. Come back often to see what I am up too -
Coming in July??? Hmmm - you will have to come back to find out!

~Paula~

Sunday, June 20, 2010

More Sugar Nellie Challenges

I have been coloring with my new prismacolor pencils as much as time allows and I have to say that I REALLY like this coloring medium. They are really quite easy to use. It reminds me of the long summer days of coloring in coloring books when I was a kid. I have found the Sugar Nellie images to be some of the best to color - and another challenge was posted recently. The challenge was to NOT use embellishments on the card. I don't know about you - but sometimes that can be difficult for me. I want to fill that 'white' space with flowers or ribbons or buttons or - whatever because if not the card just looks too plain! Sometimes it makes the card look too 'newby' too - you know what I mean? Like someone that is just starting out stamping and they aren't quite sure what to do, and they only have one stamp - so they stamp it, color it and the card is done! Nothing wrong with that - we have all been there!! Then you start looking at pictures in magazines and galleries of other cardmakers online - and you begin to realize just how plain your card is and that there is a HUGE learning curve. I am STILL at that place. I see cards every time I go about looking that I want to copy - cards with tons of embellishments or they are placed just right - or they have the latest greatest of stamping paraphenalia! So, when I saw this challenge - I thought - they have ME in mind!! And even without out the embellishments - I still wanted to fill the white space - so I used my CB - this was allowed, on one and used bg stamps on another. So, put away all those embellishments and try to do just ONE card without embellishments. You might find that it FREES you!! Of course, I wouldn't be going and getting rid of all those wonderful embellies just yet!

Thanks for stopping by - do have a glorious day - and remember - you can always come back here for a bit of rest and relaxation.

~Paula~

Friday, June 11, 2010

More Sugar Nellies

Over at the Sugar Bowl they have some new releases featured - now I REALLY have a dilemma trying to decide what images I want to get - they are all so darn cute!!
So yesterday I featured the card I made for the sketch challenge - today I am going to show you the card I made for Challenge #9 on the Splitcoast Stampers Sugar Nellie Forum. The challenge was to simply do a gatefold card. Well, that is easy! The other part of the challenge was to use only a Sugar Nellie stamp - ok, so I have how many? (Yesterday's post!) - So, I got out the TWO rubber stamps that I ordered, and colored one - but then couldn't really come up with the cardstock I wanted to use - hmm, maybe I should have planned that BEFORE coloring - anyway, it was fun and it gave me a chance to play with the blending medium. So, I pulled the other stamps - and LOVED the way she colored up. This time I had chosen the colors BEFORE I colored her.
This morning, I have colored a few more images of her in different colors - so watch for cards to be posted of her in a rainbow of colors.

Thanks for stopping by the spa today - where I hope you have been inspired to COLOR your world with prismacolor!!

~Paula~

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Sugar Nellies and Prismacolor Pencils!!

Have you seen the Sugar Nellie Images? OMG they are just the cutest!! I love the soft look of them - they remind me of my Precious Moments Collection. Well, I recently purchased a few of the images, some digital and some actual stamps. I received the stamps in the mail this week - and now I NEED to order more!! I did receive a couple more images from another stamper - but with only TWO rubber stamps and THREE digitals - I am going to get tired of those images quite fast and will NEED to order more - just might have to do that today. The images come from Scotland - my Great-Grandparents were born in Scotland - and I visited there a few years back - oh, how I want to go back again - and stay longer.
Back to the Sugar Nellies - I visited the Sugar Bowl and challenge #36 is up - I know, I always seem to jump into the middle of something!! Anyway - the sketch is a simple one - and the colors to use are even listed - pink, black and white - what could be easier? So, I looked at the few images that I have and thought this little girl on a trike was just the perfect choice. I used Melon Mambo for the darker pink and ribbon and mounted the image on a pretty in pink bg. I used a Sweet Impressions sentiment stamped in melon mambo. The coloring was done with prismacolor pencils - who needs copics when you have prismacolor pencils?

Thanks for stopping by the spa today - perhaps you can come back - bring your coloring medium and we will color together next time.

~Paula~

Monday, June 7, 2010

Just a Day late!!

Yesterday my cards were featured on the OWH Stars and Stamps blog site. However, it was SUCH a crazy day that I didn't get a chance to even post the cards here until now. I enjoyed making these cards. On the first card I used a White Background, DP from Stampin' Up called Flowers for You. I then cut a Top Note Die from SU Rose Red Cardstock. I then layered my 'quilt' pieces on white paper and then cut it again using the top note die cut. I used my nestibilities Scallop die and oval die for the sentiment added the sheer white ribbon, and used Prima paper roses for the final touch. You can see the technique – quilted top note from Jeanine at the bucketlist Stamper – great tutorial here I didn’t cut strips as she did, I used my 1” square punch from SU. Sentiment from SU set – Delight in Life.

For this next card I used Orchid Opulence cardstock for the background, DP Cottage Wall, Rich Razzleberry CS, Sheer White Ribbon, White cs for sentiment, Nestibilities Scallop die, paper flowers from UK, rhinestone. Sentiment from Sweet Impressions stamped in Rich Razzleberry. I absolutely LOVE the Cottage Wall DP from SU - may even need to get another package of that before it goes away. This card was one that I sent to OWH to send to the troops earlier in the year.

So, there you have it - my cards that were featured.

Now, if you might not know this - I started a Summer challenge last week - the first challenge was to make a card for a graduate - OR if you don't have a grad in the family, you could do a scrapbook page from the past - I am sure that you have SB pages that have yet to be done!! I know I do!! I haven't scrapped my HS graduation, nor my Jr College Graduation or even my University Graduation - and that has been a LOT of years ago - I do have papers to do it - just haven't. And NOW, I have one of my sons graduation to do and my daughter will be graduating next year - so I probably should get to it - BUT - that was last week - and this week we have a NEW challenge!!

This week is the last FULL week of school for my kids - so they are REALLY looking forward to summer. This week is also my Mom's 79th birthday - so I would like to see Cards that are all about summer fun - OR birthday cards for family/friends.
Post a link to your creation in the comments.

Thanks for joining me on this journey this summer - and thanks for stopping by to visit the spa today - where I hope you have found a bit of relaxation in your day.

~Paula~

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Challenges

The last few days have been crazy ones for me - with all of the family home on Monday, I didn't get my 'normal' day of rest. I usually enjoy spending Monday's catching up on all the stuff that I need to do around the house and then creating. I did make some cards for another challenge - still working on doing more of those - all for Operation Write Home. I am also offering blog candy for those that left comments during the hop - however - I will have to choose those names tomorrow - so stand by!
Now for another challenge - last summer I participated in the 92 days of summer challenge - I can't remember what site offered it, however the idea was to take a picture a day throughout the summer months and then create 13 Scrapbook layouts - either digital, hybrid or paper. It was alot of fun - and I have pages (I did digital) that I can look back and remember the summer of '09.
While at work today - I remembered doing that and decided to offer a challenge to my followers, as well as anyone else that wants to join in.
Here is the challenge - Each week throughout the summer I will post a challenge on my blog - if you would like to participate, leave me a comment and then when you have completed the challenge, post a comment with a link to your creation.
Since yesterday was the 1st of June - we are 'right on schedule' :) So here is my first challenge:
With graduation just around the corner for many - create a card or scrapbook page celebrating this milestone. If you don't know anyone that is graduating, what about other milestones? Perhaps a promotion? - I just promoted to Major in the Civil Air Patrol! Be creative and share with me.

Looking forward to seeing all your wonderful creations - until then -
Thanks for stopping by the spa - where I hope you have found inspiration, and rest

~Paula~